Naruto: Rewrite
by SykoMonk
Summary: What would happen if Naruto wasn’t a complete idiot and the teams were different? Well here’s my vision of how things should’ve been. There'll be many pairings including: NaruHina, ShikaTema, and GaaraHaku. LeeSaku possible. Discontinued.
1. A New Beginning

**Naruto: Rewrite**

**Summary: What would happen if Naruto wasn't a complete idiot and the teams were different? Well here's my vision of how things should've been. There will be many pairings: NaruHina, ShikaTema, InoKiba, and KakaAnko **

"normal talking"

"_normal thinking"_

"**inner demon/personality talking"**

"_**inner demon/personality thinking"**_

**AN: This is my second attempt at a fanfic, my first one failed miserably… But I hope this one will end up better. I don't own Naruto in any way though I wish I did.**

**Chapter 1: A New Beginning**

Eight years ago, the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the shinobi village of Konohagakure. The village's leader, Kazama Arashi, the Yondaime Hokage also known as the Yellow Flash of Konoha, stopped the raging beast by sealing it inside of a newborn, blond-haired boy with a freshly cut umbilical cord. The Yondaime gave his life with this act, and wished that the boy was treated as a hero and savior of the village for containing the Kyuubi. This wish, for the most part, was never granted.

At the moment we find the same blond-haired boy, now eight years old, staggering into his apartment, battered, beaten, bruised, and bloody, where he lives alone. His current condition is thanks to the "lovely" citizens of Konohagakure, who use every chance they get to beat the young boy to with an inch of his life

The boy, Uzumaki Naruto, collapses onto his bed, where blood slowly begins to pool as it drains out of a deep cut just above his left hip. As he lies there slowly dying, Naruto can only think, _"Why me? What did I ever do to anyone… to deserve to be beat up every day?"_

Losing consciousness, Naruto soon finds himself in a dank hall with metal walls. The faint dripping sound of water falling from the ceiling down to the floor echoes constantly. Naruto slowly and cautiously walks down the hall thinking to himself, _"Where am I? Last I remember, I was in my room, dying."_

After a good ten minutes of walking, Naruto comes upon a side hall with a familiar, yet unknown presence emitting from the end of it. Curiosity taking over, Naruto turns down the hall and continues walking.

After many more minutes if walking, Naruto comes upon an enormous room with an equally large cage on the other side. In the center is a worn talisman with the kanji for "seal" written on it. Cautiously, Naruto approaches the cage, knowing the presence he felt earlier is coming from the other side.

Just as the young blond is about to step between the bars of the cage, two huge, fox-like eyes open up and stare directly at him. Naruto immediately jumps back out of fright and falls down on his rear shaking uncontrollably.

Then, a voice can be heard from the other side of the cage, saying, **"So you're the little kit that, that damned Yondaime sealed me away in, huh?"**

Naruto begins shaking even more, so much so that he's unable to respond. The voice continues talking, **"You know you're dying, right Kit? And just so you know, if you die I die, and I don't plan on dying anytime soon." **

Nervously getting back to his feet, the blond asks, "Wh-wh-who are y-y-y-you? And why are you inside me?"

The demonic voice grins a very toothy, fox-like grin answering, **"I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune that attacked this cesspool of a village eight years ago. I'll be happy to tell you more but first, **_**I**_** need to make sure **_**you**_** don't die."**

With that, thin tendrils of red chakra slither through the bars of the cage and quietly envelop the young blond, who moments later finds himself back in his dark apartment, wounds healed completely, and a drying pool of blood on his mattress. Feeling completely exhausted Naruto crashes back down onto his bed and falls into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**Four Years Later**

Naruto is the second best in his class and is topped only by Uchiha Sasuke. Today is the day when all of the students who passed their final Academy Exam will be split into three-man squads, each with a Jounin-sensei. Many of the Genin sit impatiently as Iruka-sensei calls out the squads one by one.

"Next is Squad Seven. Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke continued brooding as he normally does, not even bothering to pay attention to who else is called for his squad. "Yamanaka Ino…" Said girl jumps up at the sound of her name and starts doing an over the top victory dance, accidentally slapping Nara Shikamaru, the laziest yet smartest kid out of all the Genin present, in the side of the head with her ponytail. At the same time, a long, pink-haired girl named Haruno Sakura fell into a deep depression that her rival Ino-pig was paired with her beloved Sasuke-kun. "And lastly, Inuzuka Kiba. Your Jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi," said Iruka finishing the call for Squad 7.

"Now, Squad 8 will consist of Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Akamichi Chouji. Your Jounin-sensei is Yuhi Kurenai," Iruka said quickly in order to avoid any remarks of disapproval. No one from the group did anything worth noticing, since Shino was talking to his bugs as usual, Chouji was eating as usual, and Sakura was still depressed since she wasn't in the same group as Sasuke.

Quickly proceeding through Squad 9, Iruka moved on to the final squad. "And finally, Squad 10 will consist of Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto. Your Jounin-sensei is Sarutobi Asuma," Iruka finished happily. He looked up to notice Shikamaru had fallen backwards in his chair while sleeping; Hinata had apparently fainted upon hearing she was in the same group as Naruto; and Naruto was just lazily looking over towards his two teammates.

Naruto was thinking to himself at the time, _"So I have a genius who's lazier than a stump and the Hyuuga heiress who can't even look at me without fainting for teammates, _perfect._"_ **"Better choices than anyone else here, Kit, except maybe for that Aburame, but then again, I **_**hate**_** bugs," **the Kyuubi added.

After a few minutes, Iruka then spoke up over all the students who were chatting amongst themselves about their squad assignments and said, "You must all be here to meet your Jounin-sensei at 8:00 am sharp. You are all dismissed till then."

Standing up and making his way to the door, Naruto is stopped by a squeaky, almost inaudible voice talking to him, "Um, ex-excuse me, N-Naruto-k-kun?"

Naruto turns around and is face-to-face with his white-eyed teammate. "Hai, what is it Hinata?"

Hinata goes a bright, crimson-red in the face, and twiddles with her fingers for a moment or two before saying, "Um, I-I was wondering if, y-you would l-like to g-go out and eat s-somewhere along with m-me and S-Shikamaru-san, since w-we're on the same squad now."

Thinking for a minute, the fox-boy half-heartedly responds, "Sure, I guess that sounds like a good idea." He then thinks to himself, _"Now she'll faint in three, two, one…"_ And as if on cue, the shy, Hyuuga heiress collapses to the ground, her face redder then a ripe cherry tomato. Sighing, Naruto, with the help of Shikamaru, who muttered something about, "troublesome women," gets Hinata on her feet as they slowly head out of the Academy, and towards Ichiraku's Ramen for a celebratory dinner.

**A/N: Yes a short first chapter I know but I'm going to start off short and then work my way up to longer chapters. Anyway, next chapter is the bell test which I decided to use only because it's simple. Anyway, please R&R and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible. **


	2. Newfound Love

**A/N: Ok I had originally decided on having the story focus mainly on Naruto & Hinata with a bunch of other side pairings, but I think I'll also have it focus on Shikamaru & Temari once I get up to the Chuunin exams.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the quirks and twists I've put on Masashi Kishimoto-sama's original idea; nor do I own the restaurant Edo.**

**Chapter 2: Newfound Love**

"**Wake up Kit,"** says Kyuubi as Naruto is still fast asleep and it's 7:45 am. Kyuubi thinks to himself, _**"Honestly, why the hell do I put up with this damn kid?"**_

"Because you're sealed inside me kitsune-baka," answers Naruto.

"**When the hell did you wake up?!" snaps the Kyuubi.** "Oh, about five minutes ago. I thought it'd be funny to just piss you off since you do the same to me every damn day."

"**One of these days I'm going to kill you, you smart-mouth blond-brat!"**

"You'll die too, dobe," Naruto says, slapping the Kyuubi with unbeatable logic.

"**I hate you,"** the Kyuubi says simply, retreating back into the depths of Naruto's mind. Naruto then gets out of bed and knowing he doesn't have time, decides to skip a shower and just throw on some clothes and eat a quick energy bar for breakfast.

Stepping out of his apartment in a black t-shirt with a picture of a fox's face right above his heart, baggy black pants, black ninja sandals, and his headband wrapped tightly around his right arm, Naruto speeds off towards the Academy.

Reaching the Academy with just a few minutes to spare, Naruto rushes to the classroom and gets there to find all the would-be Genin still there. He quickly spots Hinata and Shikamaru standing, and in Shikamaru's case, sitting, in a corner at the far end of the classroom, away from everyone else.

Shikamaru is wearing his usual fishnet shirt with a vest with the Nara family crest on the back, dark-blue slacks, blue ninja sandals, and his headband pinned to his vest. Hinata was wearing her usual oversized jacket with the Hyuuga crest on it and baggy black pants, with her headband comfortable tied around her neck.

"Hey Hinata, Shikamaru, how long have you guys been here?" the blond asked walking over to the two. "I got here at seven and Hinata's only been here for about five minutes," Shikamaru lazily answered.

Naruto's jaw dropped in disbelief, wondering why Shikamaru showed up an hour early. Hinata giggled quietly to herself at the fox-boy's reaction and blushed slightly. "Oh, th-thank you very m-much for treating us b-both to dinner last night Naruto-kun," the white-eyed girl said softly, remembering the previous night.

"Yea, thanks Naruto, but seriously, how did you manage to eat fifteen bowls of Ramen without getting sick?" the genius-boy asked. Before Naruto could answer, the classroom door slid open and several Jounin walked in. A tall Jounin with spiky-black hair and a full beard, who was smoking a cigarette walked over towards Squad 10.

"You three must be Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru," said the Jounin. "My name's Sarutobi Asuma and from this day forward I'll be your Jounin instructor. Asuma suddenly realized that all three of the Genin were pinching their noses shut and that their eyes were watering.

Naruto spoke up saying, "You reek of smoke sensei, it's disgusting." The other two nodded in agreement, drying the tears that couldn't seem to stop flowing from their eyes. Asuma simply laughed at the three Genin saying, "Well looks like you three will just have to get used to it since I'm a chronic smoker."

Finally, not being able to take it anymore, Naruto draws a kunai from his holster and slices Asuma's cigarette to pieces leaving only the butt-end in his mouth. Asuma seeing how quickly Naruto was able to slice his cigarette apart before he could react says, "Well I think we should go out somewhere and get to know each other better." The three Genin soon left with Asuma, as did all the other Squads except for number seven, who would be waiting a good four hours before Kakashi ever even showed up.

**A few minutes later on the Academy roof**

"Well I guess I should start off first huh?" Asuma asked rhetorically, looking at the water-eyed Genin who still had their noses pinched shut since Asuma decided to smoke another cigarette. "My name's Sarutobi Asuma, though you already know that. I'm a relative the Sandaime Hokage and my interests include Go and Shogi. There's nothing I can think of that I really dislike."

Asuma then looks at the three wannabe Genin sitting in front of him and points at Shikamaru asking, "How about you go first before you fall asleep?"

Shikamaru lazily looks up and says, "I'm Nara Shikamaru, I like Shogi and Go, and I'd rather watch clouds then do anything troublesome." Asuma sighs unenthusiastically while thinking to himself, _"Ok, so he's lazy that's obvious, but he's obviously smarter than what it says on his data sheet."_

"How about you go next young lady?" Asuma asks motioning towards Hinata who immediately tried to shrink into her jacket. Hinata mumbled something that not even Naruto and Shikamaru could hear even though they were sitting right next to her. Asuma took a last puff on his cigarette before tossing it aside and saying, "I'm afraid you're going to have to speak loud enough so we can here you."

After twiddling with her fingers for a moment, Hinata finally spoke, "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata and I l-like basically everything. I d-don't dislike anything at all." Hinata then turned her gaze towards Naruto and finished quietly, "I a-also l-l-like Naruto-kun." Hinata was now as red as a cherry and looked as though she would pass out.

Naruto was wide eyed when Hinata claimed she liked him. Then he heard Kyuubi in the back of his head saying, **"So the little mouse has a crush on you huh? I've been wondering when she was gonna let it be publicly known."**

Gasping inwardly, Naruto snaps, _"How long have you know?!"_** "Since the first time she blushed at you, Kit. You never realized it 'cause you're a dobe."** _"I'll argue later it's my turn to talk!"_

"Earth to Naruto," Shikamaru said trying to get the blonde's attention. Snapping back to reality, Naruto asks stupidly, "Is it my turn?" Asuma, Shikamaru, and Hinata all sigh in unison and respond, "Yes!"

"Heh, sorry. Anyway I'm Uzumaki Naruto and there are only three things I dislike in this world: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Yamanaka Ino; my favorite food is ramen, but I'll eat practically anything; and I enjoy training more than anything," Naruto said quickly.

Asuma smiled and scratched the back of his head thinking, _"This kid's _way_ better than any of the other graduates this year. And the girl is probably the best kunoichi too. Looks like I struck it rich with this team."_

Returning his attention to the Genin Asuma said, "Well now that we've all gotten to know each other a little better I got something to tell you. Tomorrow at 8:00 am, you three are to meet me at the tenth training ground for your final test to determine if you're truly meant to be Genin. If you pass I'll treat all three of you to a barbeque dinner."

"Sweet!" Naruto yelled. "We'll try our best!" Hinata said without stuttering for once. "This is gonna be troublesome," Shikamaru put in lazily.

"Well anyway, you three have the rest of the day to enjoy yourselves. Just remember to be there by eight," Asuma explained before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Once on the street, Hinata turned to head back towards the Hyuuga compound when Naruto yelled out, "Hey Hinata, can I talk to you for a minute." Hinata turned around and Naruto noticed the slight blush in her face as she walked over towards him.

"Y-yes, Naruto-kun?" the Hyuuga heiress asked shyly. The fox-boy quickly said, "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner or something tonight, just the two of us." At the mention of the words, "go out to dinner" and "just the two of us" Hinata turned a shade of red that was deeper and brighter than any red she'd ever been before in her life.

Amazingly without fainting Hinata quickly yelled at the top of her lungs, "OFCOURSEI'DLOVETOGOOUTWITHYOUNARUTO-KUN!!" With that nearly everyone around the blonde-haired boy and midnight blue-haired girl looked towards them in confusion and shock.

Naruto then said, "I think we should go somewhere a little more private Hinata." Naruto then grabbed Hinata's hand and dragged her around the corner and then down a small alley after running for about ten minutes. Hinata had passed out somewhere along the way and was now covered in dirt.

A few moments after they got in the alley Hinata woke up and found herself in Naruto's arms. She looked up at him and he smiled at her and said, "I think you're going to have to answer my question again Hinata-chan, I didn't understand what you said before." _"Huh? Did I just call her Hinata-_chan_?!"_

Hinata blushed deeply and restated her reply from before, this time more clearly and slowly so Naruto could understand, "Of course I'd love to go out with you Naruto-kun." **(A/N: Yes she didn't stutter! I'm going to make her stutter less and less from now on!)**

Naruto was amazed that Hinata spoke for once without stuttering and even more so since she was talking to _him_. Hinata was just as amazed and smiled warmly at the thought that she was starting to get comfortable around Naruto.

Naruto then asked, "So where would you like to go out to Hinata? I may be Ichiraku's best customer but I don't want to take you there again, especially two nights in a row." Hinata was now blushing in a deep red, but not so much as she was before. She answered softly, "I'd l-like to go wherever Naruto-kun wants to go."

"Well I know this great steakhouse at the southern end of the village. They have the best hibachi steak, shrimp, and chicken anywhere!" Naruto exclaimed with a bit of drool slipping out of the corner of his mouth. Hinata giggled at this and quickly and innocently wiped the drool away with the edge of the sleeve of her jacket.

"I think I've eaten there once before with Neji-niisan, is the restaurant called Edo?" Hinata asked, remembering one of very few occasions where her cousin Neji had been nice to her and done her a favor.

"It is!" Naruto responded, "Let's get going while it's early and we don't have to wait for a table." And with that the Hyuuga heiress and Kitsune-container ran off on their first date.

**A/N: Wow I thought it was going to be harder to get Hinata to stop with the stutter but it looks like it was kinda easy. Anyway I had originally intended to put the bell test in this chapter but it didn't happen. Looks like I got a little too caught up in my first NaruHina scene. The bell test is definitely next along with a short barbeque dinner party after with Teams 7, 8, and 10. R&R and I'll have the next chapter up ASAP.**


	3. Kagemane Byakugan Kage Bunshin Success

**A/N: Alright I'm sick as a dog at the moment but I'm gonna try my best to right another great chapter for you my readers! I must give a big thanks to Dragon Man 180 for giving me a beautifully evil idea for the barbeque party. Anyway enough of my ranting here's chapter 3!!! (I own nothing but the quirks!)**

**Chapter 3: Kagemane + Byakugan + Kage Bunshin Success**

Beep! Beep! Be-SMASH!

Naruto turned over in bed to find his alarm clock smashed to pieces, again. When Naruto tried to get up out of bed to get ready for his usual early morning training, he was pulled back down and was pulled into someone's embrace. The blonde turned his head and was staring at his new midnight blue-haired girlfriend, Hinata.

It took a second for everything to add up in Naruto's head before he freaked out and thought, _"Oh Kami! Why the hell is Hinata-chan in my bed?! Did we do _it_?!"_ His frantic questions were answered by a rather annoyed Kyuubi. **"You brought her here last night after dinner because she drank too much sake and passed out; and no Kit you're still a virgin… unfortunately."**

A wave of relief hit the fox-boy as Hinata began to stir and softly said, "Oh, good m-morning Naruto-kun." In her sleepy stupor, Hinata didn't even realize that she was in the same room, let alone the same bed as her beloved Naruto-kun. She sat up and turned to get out of bed and Naruto quickly turned the other way.

Hinata had on a long black shirt that Naruto had let her borrow. The shirt was obvious one that Naruto himself might wear on occasion since it was almost down to Hinata's knees. She suddenly realized that she wasn't in her own room and turned back to bed to see Naruto laying there, slightly blushing towards her.

Hinata passed out almost immediately, but Naruto was quick enough to keep her from falling face first on the floor. He held her for a few minutes, taking time to examine her smooth porcelain skin. He noticed that she was far bigger than Sakura or Ino, not that he cared about those two Sasuke fan-girls.

As Hinata began to come to, Naruto helped her to her feet. Hinata was now blushing fiercely; she looked at Naruto shyly and asked, "Why am I here in y-your house, Naruto-kun?"

The fox-boy grinned slightly and replied, "They made a mistake with your drink and accidentally gave you some sake. I knew it would be a bad idea to bring you back to your house drunk so I brought you here. You were kind of out of it but you managed to put on the bed shirt I lent you." Hinata's blush slightly deepened, mostly at the thought of Naruto seeing her in only her bra and panties.

The fox-boy decided that now was the best time to change the subject by quickly suggesting, "Um, Hinata-chan why don't we have breakfast quickly then maybe go out for some early morning training before we have to meet Asuma-sensei at eight?" Naruto took a quick glance at his smashed alarm clock and vaguely made out the time as 5:26. _"How in the world can that thing still work?"_ the blonde asked himself.

Naruto walked over into his tiny kitchen area and pulled some bacon out of the freezer and a carton of eggs out of the fridge. Making a few kage bunshin, Naruto went about making a quick breakfast for him and the Hyuuga heiress. One of the clones even brought Hinata's clothes from the previous day over to his tiny washing machine and threw them in. By the time 6:30 had come around, both Naruto and Hinata had eaten and were fully dressed.

Hinata of course, was wearing her outfit from yesterday and Naruto had on an outfit similar to what he wore yesterday, except it was a very dark red instead of black. Naruto had let Hinata borrow an extra kunai holster and tools pouch, both of them black. At 6:35 they both headed off to the tenth training ground and did some light taijutsu exercises until Shikamaru arrived around 7:30.

The young genius was surprised that someone was here earlier than he was, especially since both Naruto and Hinata often barely arrived on time. He walked up silently to the couple and noticed that both of them were a lot better at taijutsu than what they had seemed to be at the Academy. He lazily asked, "What are you two doing here so early?" Without even stopping their small sparring match, they both replied in unison, "Training!"

Shikamaru went slightly wide-eyed, mostly due to the fact that Hinata _never_ trained with this kind of enthusiasm, and that Naruto would try to end the match as quickly as possible while using as little energy as possible. Shikamaru decided it would be to troublesome to try to get the couple to stop, so he just sat against a nearby tree and made a quick observation of the surroundings before meditating.

At eight, Asuma arrived to find a meditating Shikamaru, and a sleeping Hinata and Naruto sitting side-by-side against a tree; Hinata had her head resting in the crook of Naruto's neck and the fox-boy had an arm wrapped gently around the Hyuuga heiress' waist. Asuma's cigarette dropped straight to the ground, but was beat there by his jaw.

All he could think was, _"When did those two become a couple?! Yesterday, Hinata could barely look at Naruto without blushing, but here they are now sleeping next to each other like a couple that's been going out for months!!" _

Quickly regaining his composure, Asuma cleared his throat, and said, "Good morning Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru!" This woke all three of them with a start. Hinata and Naruto were blushing slightly and Shikamaru looked somewhat annoyed, but then again, he pretty much always looked like that.

The three stood up and walked up to Asuma saying in unison, "Good morning Asuma-sensei!" Asuma took a quick looked them over and realized they were all ready for whatever he was going to throw at them, Hinata had even taken off her oversized jacket. She was wearing a sleeveless, dark-purple shirt, with a short-sleeved fishnet shirt underneath.

"Well today's you're final test before you become Genin," Asuma started. "I should let you know though, that only three out of the ten teams chosen will pass today, though I'm sure of course you three will have no problems getting through this."

"So what do we have to do exactly?" the blonde inquired.

"It's rather simple," Asuma answered reaching into his pocket. He pulled out two opal bells, each attached to a thin black string. "Your goal is to get these two bells from me before noon, whichever of you three don't get a bell will be tied to a tree and forced to watch your comrades eat lunch, while you get none."

All three of them already realized what they had to do when Shikamaru spoke up, "So it's a team exercise to show how well we work as a three-man squad then, right sensei?" The other two nodded in agreement.

"You guys hit the nail on the head, but don't think just because you know you have to work as team means you'll still be able to get these bells from me," Asuma said back confidently. "I'll even make you this deal: Get the bells in one hour and all of you will get lunch and you can tie me to a tree."

Hinata giggled at this and Shikamaru and Naruto smirked evilly. All three of them thought, _"Let's make this quick then!"_

Asuma then pulled out his two signature trench knives and said, "When I say 'Go!' we begin."

The three prepared themselves and after a moment Asuma shouted, "GO!" In the blink of an eye, Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru had hidden themselves among the trees. After a moment or two they had regrouped.

"Ok you two, I have a plan but first we need to know what kind of weapons the enemy has," Shikamaru stated. "Hinata, use your Byakugan and check what weapons Asuma is hiding in his vest and tools pouch."

"Hai!" the white-eyed kunoichi responded and immediately activated her bloodline limit. After a minute of examining the items and weapons Asuma had on him Hinata reported, "Asuma-sensei has a kunai in each pocket of his vest and a few smoke bombs, explosive tags, and food pellets in his tools pouch."

"How are we going to deal with all of that?" Naruto asked a little worried. "I've already got a plan," Shikamaru stated. "Naruto you know the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, correct?"

"Hai…"

"I want you to distract Asuma-sensei while I sneak around behind him. Do whatever you can to keep him from noticing me. I'll catch him in my Kagemane no jutsu, then you and Hinata rush him and grab the bells."

"Sounds a little reckless," the fox-boy said, not entirely sure of how one jutsu would keep his sensei from stopping him and Hinata from grabbing the two bells. **"Just go with the plan, Kit. This Nara kid knows what he's doing, his plan is fool proof,"** the Kyuubi said ridding Naruto of his doubts.

Asuma meanwhile was on his sixth cigarette since the test had started when he looked at his watch which read, 8:50. The chain smoking Jounin thought to himself, _"Where the hell are those kids? The test started almost an hour ago. They must've thought I was lying about that deal."_

Suddenly, Asuma saw multiple flashes of yellow and black and before long there were over fifty Narutos standing in front of him. For the second time that day, Asuma's chin beat his cigarette to the ground. Before Asuma ever recovered his composure, the small Naruto battalion charged at him.

Asuma immediately started to fight using the chakra focused in his trench knives to cut through multiple clones at once, but for every one he turned into a puff of smoke three more seemed to take its place. After five minutes of nonstop fighting Asuma was surrounded by close to 400 clones. As the clones readied to charge again, Asuma tried to prepare himself only to realize he couldn't move.

From the tree that he had been backed up against Asuma heard a rather lazy, yet satisfied voice say, "Kagemane no jutsu success." He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Shikamaru grinning humorously when the genius yelled, "Naruto, Hinata, now!"

The clone army in front of Asuma disappeared in a great cloud of smoke and out of it rushed Naruto and Hinata. Both lunged at Asuma, each successfully grabbing a bell. Shikamaru released his Kagemane and jumped down next to his teammates, who were both grinning from ear to ear.

Asuma was in disbelief and looked down at his watch. At that very second the time went from 8:59 to 9:00. All Asuma did was laugh and his students soon followed suit. They just stood there laughing for a good five minutes, the whole while Asuma thought, _"They actually got the bells in one hour I can't believe it! I may not be up to Kakashi's level but damn, I really did strike it rich with this team."_

After they all settled down, Asuma said, "Congratulations you three are now officially Genin of Konohagakure." Asuma was about to walk off when his students stepped in front of him.

Naruto pointed his finger at Asuma and said, "Don't you go trying to leave thinking we forgot our deal sensei. We get to tie you up to a tree and eat lunch in front of you!" Asuma sweat-dropped thinking, _"They remembered?! Dammit!"_

So when lunch time came, Asuma was tied down to a tree and forced to watch his new Genin students eat their delicious lunches in front of him, all the while his stomach growling in anger at him.

**That night, at the barbeque restaurant.**

Squads 7, 8, and 10 had successfully passed their exams. Naruto was annoyed that the pompous Uchiha Sasuke had passed along with his two precious fan girls Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. What surprised everyone there was that Naruto and Hinata were holding hands with their fingers laced.

While the others were in a state of shock, Naruto used his Kage Bunshin to quietly place a clear, tasteless laxative into Sasuke, Ino, and Sakura's drinks. When Squad 10 left later that evening, the three victims of Naruto's prank were holed up in the bathroom. The whole time they walked together, they joked about how great Naruto's prank was and that he had knocked the "great" Uchiha Sasuke down a few pegs.

Asuma was the first to leave as the passed his house, soon followed by Shikamaru. Naruto walked with Hinata the rest of the way to the Hyuuga estate and before saying goodbye, gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, "We should have another date again sometime soon Hinata-chan, maybe sometime this weekend."

Hinata blushed slightly at the fox-boy's suggestion and softly replied, "I would love that Naruto-kun; I would also enjoy having another sparring match sometime soon."

Naruto grinned a foxy grin and said, "Anytime you wanna spar Hinata-chan just come to the tenth training ground I train there a lot."

"Then maybe I'll see you tomorrow," she implied lightly, then returning his kiss with one of her own. She quickly turned and entered the Hyuuga manor while waving goodbye to her love, a deep blush on her face all the while.

Naruto waved as well then jumped to the roofs and headed for his apartment.

**A/N: There ya have it another chapter done and out of the way. I've completely done away with Hinata's stutter in case you noticed and if you're wondering if Hinata's going to be in trouble for not going home the night before the bell test, just imagine her making something up besides spending the night with Naruto. Anyway the next chapter may not come till Friday but be patient cause up next is the journey to Wave!**


	4. Second Date

**A/N: God I hate being sick. My hate for being sick can only compare to my love for anime. Anyway even though it's only been a day since I posted my last chapter I decided to write another just cause I feel like. Anyhow this chapter WON'T start the whole Journey to Wave which I've been looking forward to writing. This chapter will feature a day long date between Naruto and Hinata. So enough ranting let's get the fourth chapter started! (I own nothing but the little twists in the story.)**

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4: Second Date**

**The weekend after the bell test.**

It's 6:30 am and Naruto and Hinata have just begun another sparing match. They've done this every morning for the past four since five days ago they became Genin. While they fight, they don't use any weapons but their bare hands; however, they do use various techniques, such as Naruto's Kage Bunshin no jutsu and Hinata's Jyuuken. They'll usually spar for about an hour before resting.

As Hinata rushes towards Naruto, she activates her Byakugan while Naruto creates a few bunshin. Hinata quickly deals with them and continues to try to strike Naruto's chakra points. Naruto, who for the most part is completely on the defensive, dodges all of Hinata's strikes, though just barely.

Whenever the blonde gets an opening, he tries to counter the Hyuuga heiress either by trying a leg sweep, flipping her over his shoulder, or trying to get in a standard punch. Unfortunately for Naruto, these tactics nearly always fail, as Hinata uses her natural flexibility to dodge or counter Naruto's counters.

By the time they've finished around 7:30, both the white-eyed girl and blue-eyed boy are completely exhausted. They both sit down against a tree to rest for awhile, while they regain their strength. Hinata leans over and rests her head comfortably on Naruto's shoulder, while running a hand through his spiky, blonde hair. They sit like this, enjoying each other's company for a good ten minutes before Hinata says, "Naruto-kun, would you like to go out tonight?"

The fox-boy is slightly taken a back at the white-eyed girl's question, still not being used to her being comfortable around him. Smiling warmly at her, Naruto responds, "Of course Hinata-chan, do you have any place in particular you want to go to."

In the back of his mind, the blonde could hear Kyuubi badgering him, **"My, aren't**_** you**_** the gentleman. You're never nice to anyone else except your sensei and some of those other Genin."**

"_Well I'm never nice to anyone but to those few people who are nice to me, because most people have never been nice to me."_

"**And whose fault is that?"** Kyuubi asked rhetorically.

"_Yours you damn fox!"_ Naruto spat inwardly at the demon.

While Naruto was arguing with Kyuubi, Hinata had been thinking of a place where she and Naruto could go out to. Suddenly it hit her, and she said, "Naruto-kun, why don't we go shopping for the day, then go to a fancy restaurant afterwards?"

Naruto quit his argument with Kyuubi and thought about Hinata's suggestion. The few missions he had done in addition to the bonus he got for becoming a Genin had given Naruto quite a bit of extra spending money. He smiled happily and said, "Sure Hinata-chan, that sounds like a great idea. Though I think we should both go home and get into better outfits than these," he finished looking down at their dirt covered training outfits.

The Hyuuga heiress nodded in agreement, and softly said, "Why don't we both go now then meet back here around ten, then head out to go shopping?" Naruto smiled happily, which Hinata instinctively knew meant he agreed. The both left for their homes, but not before giving each other a light kiss on the lips.

**Sometime after 10:00 am, at the shopping district in Konohagakure.**

Naruto and Hinata are walking side by side, while holding hands as they enter the shopping district. Naruto is wearing a black t-shirt with the kanji for "fox" on the front and back, plain black slacks, and standard black ninja sandals. His headband is tied comfortably on his right bicep. Hinata is wearing a midnight-blue tank-top and shorts and is also wearing standard black ninja sandals. As usual, her headband is comfortably hanging from her neck.

Naruto looks at his white-eyed girlfriend and notices her clothes are somewhat baggy and hid her figure. Naruto then asks her, "Hey Hinata-chan, why do you wear such baggy clothes? Are you shy about your figure or something?"

Hinata blushed at Naruto's question and looked down at the ground saying shyly, "Well… I guess I kind of am." Hinata's answer didn't surprise the blonde at all; he was more surprised that she actually admitted to being shy about her figure.

"Well why don't we go get you some new clothes then that are still you but show off your figure a little more," the fox-boy suggested. **"Thinking perverted thoughts about your girlfriend, eh Kit?" **Kyuubi teased. _"Shut it kitsune-teme, you're the pervert here not me."_

Due to his argument with Kyuubi, Naruto didn't realize how fierce Hinata's blush had become, but he did hear her when she said, "Would you really like it if I wore clothes that showed off my figure more, Naruto-kun?" Hinata knew that up until a few days ago, she really had no reason to show off her figure, which personally, she didn't think was all that impressive.

The blonde gave the midnight-blue his foxy grin and said, "I actually would like it a whole lot Hinata-chan. I think it would make you look way hotter." Naruto said for two reasons, first off to try and help Hinata with her self-confidence, and second, because it was true.

Hinata's blush deepened slightly, then she spotted a clothing store and said, "Naruto-kun, why don't we look in there, I'm sure I could find some outfits for myself that you would like." "They may even have some things for me," he added in, noticing that the store sold both clothes for men and women.

Upon entering the store, Naruto received numerous death glares from some of the customers and employees in the store. Naruto however, was unaffected because ever since he first met Kyuubi, he knew why the villagers detested him so and why he was so unwelcome in most public places. Hinata on the other hand, didn't like the fact that many of the people looked like they were ready to attack her blonde boyfriend.

The couple walked over to the women's department and Hinata began looking through the clothes to find something in blue or purple that both her and Naruto would like. She looked around for about ten minutes before she was satisfied with the outfits she had picked out. She dragged the fox-boy over to the changing room and told him to wait outside while she changed.

The first outfit Hinata came out in practically hit Naruto with the force of a truck. Hinata was wearing a bright purple t-shirt that barely went past her naval and showed off a decent amount of cleavage, and dark purple shorts that showed of her ass. Shyly, the Hyuuga heiress asked, "Do you like it Naruto-kun?" Her answer was Naruto flying about ten feet backwards do the force of his nosebleed. The white-eyed girl thought, _"Was it a little _too_ much?"_

She quickly ran over to Naruto and helped Naruto stop his nosebleed with some extra tissues she had with her. Somewhat hysterical, Naruto asked, "Hinata chan, are all of the outfits this revealing _and_ sexy?!" Though it was barely audible, Naruto heard Hinata answer with a soft, "Yes."

The blonde immediately said, "Then I think all of them will look great on you Hinata-chan. Let's go over to the other side of the store, I want to try to find a few shirts since some of mine are getting to small for me." After about another fifteen minutes, the couple walked up to the register and handed over the items they wanted to purchase. The clerk said, "That'll be 50,000 ryo."

Naruto's eyes went as wide as saucers and he yelled out, "How can this be that much?! I added up the price of the clothes before we came over here and it was only around 15,000!" The clerk leered at Naruto hatefully and said, "That is the price for _normal_ customers. For _you_ the price is 50,000." The way the clerk said that made Naruto feel as if he'd just been stabbed with a thousand knives.

Hinata looked at the clerk then at Naruto, and finally back towards the clerk and said, "Put it on the Hyuuga tab." The clerk was shocked that someone from the royal Hyuuga clan was defending _this_ piece of trash kid. Reluctantly he said, "Fine!" He rudely shoved the clothes into a bag and shoved it at Naruto. The couple immediately left.

Outside the store, Hinata asked worriedly, "Naruto-kun, why was that clerk so rude to you and why was everyone else in the store giving you death glares?" Hinata had asked because, like many of the younger generation in Konohagakure, she didn't know that Naruto was the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

The fact that his white-eyed girlfriend had asked him that question shook the fox-boy straight to the core. He thought, _"I can't tell Hinata-chan that Kyuubi is inside me, because if I do… she'll just run away in fear, or worse, she'll hate me."_ A small frown was now present on Naruto's face, causing Hinata further concern, so she softly said, "Are you ok, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto sighed deeply and asked the Hyuuga heiress, "Hinata-chan, if I tell you why all the villagers hate me and look at me with such cold eyes, do you promise me you won't hate me or run away?"

Hinata quickly said, "There's nothing that could make me hate you Naruto-kun! It doesn't matter what it is because I'll always be right beside you!"

The midnight-blue haired kunoichi's words gave Naruto a warm comforting feeling in his heart, one that he had felt very seldom throughout his twelve years of life. He looked towards Hinata and said, "Hinata-chan, the reason why I'm so hated in this village and why I was so lonely before you became my girlfriend is because," he sighed deeply and finished, "It's because the Kyuubi no Kitsune is sealed inside my body."

The Hyuuga heiress had thought of numerous reasons why the village would hate her blonde boyfriend with such fierce intensity, but she had never imagined it would be for something so horrible. She soon began to cry and pulled Naruto into a loving embrace, crying out, "It's not fair that they treat you so cruelly, and it's for something you can't even control!"

Naruto gently said to Hinata, "It's ok though, I've lived with the village's hatred for twelve years. It may be cruel but-"

"But it's not ok Naruto-kun!" Hinata interrupted, tears streaming down her face. "You don't deserve to be hated for something you can't control! Why didn't you tell me this before?!"

Naruto looked down at the crying white-eyed girl and answered, "It's because I thought you would hate me… just like everyone else in this village."

Hinata wiped some of the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and said, "You big baka, I could never hate you, you know that I've loved you for Kami knows how long…" Hinata's crying had attracted quite a crowd by now, as she and her blue-eyed boyfriend noticed, so without saying a word they sped off to the roof tops and away from the shopping district.

**Later That Night After Dinner**

"Thank you for taking me out today, Naruto-kun. I really enjoyed it," said the white-eyed girl as she walked hand in hand with her blonde boyfriend.

"It's no problem Hinata-chan, I'd do anything for you," Naruto replied cheerfully.

Hinata looked up at one of the clocks that were positioned at various spots in the park and realized it was 9:00 pm. She said hurriedly, "I've got to get home Naruto-kun or father will be mad again."

Naruto frowned and said, "Ok Hinata-chan." He gave her a loving hug and then unconsciously a firm passionate kiss on the lips. Both went wide eyed, but soon found that they enjoyed it, but quickly separated. Hinata smiled warmly at Naruto and waved goodbye. As Hinata left for the Hyuuga complex, both shinobi had only one thought on their minds, _"That was my first kiss!"_

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **A/N: Yahoo another great chapter done! Hope you all liked it cause there will be a little less romance and a bit more action in the next few chapters as the Journey to Wave finally starts! I forgot this earlier but I need to know if you guys want Haku to be male or female. R&R to vote and please no flames!**


	5. The Demon of Kirigakure: Momochi Zabuza

**A/N: Ok this chapter begins the Journey to Wave. I DON'T want to rush this so it may be three to four chapters I'll have to see. Haku will make his/her appearance in the NEXT chapter I need votes on whether he's a boy or girl, and you can only vote once! I will try my best to fit in a bit or NaruHina romance during these chapters but I can't promise anything. I can promise a lemon though sometime before or during the Chuunin Exams. Enough ranting the Land of Waves await!**

**Votes for Haku's gender:**

**Male: 1**

**Female: 1**

**Chapter 5: The Demon of Kirigakure: Momochi Zabuza**

**One Month After Formation of Squad 10**

"Hinata have you spotted the target?" asked the chain smoking Jounin over the radio.

"Hai! The target is five meters north of your position Naruto-kun," the white-eyed kunoichi reported.

"Copy that Hinata-chan. Shikamaru you ready?" the fox-boy questioned his fellow shinobi.

"Let's get this over with already, we've already spent two hours on this troublesome mission," whined the lazy, pineapple-headed genius. **(A/N: yes pineapple-headed. I'm sure at least one of you out there must think his head is shaped like one.)**

"If you three are set execute the plan now!" Asuma shouted. A faint, "Kagemane no Jutsu" could be heard through the radio as Shikamaru used his family's signature technique to bind the target. Naruto then leaped from the tree he was in and tackled the target. A second later there was a brown cat with a red ribbon tied on its left ear struggling in Naruto's grasp.

Hinata, Shikamaru, and Asuma quickly ran over to the fox-boy to find him being scratched and kicked by the cat that was trying to get out of his grasp. The cat got out of Naruto's grasp, scratched him painfully across the face, and then jumped into Hinata's arms and snuggled up comfortably. As Naruto lay rolling on the ground writhing in pain from the scratch, Asuma said, "Mission: Capture the Lost Cat Tora, complete!" As the group started walk back to the Hokage tower a few minutes later, Naruto could be heard muttering about, "damned hell cats."

**At the Hokage Tower**

The cat Tora was now being crushed in the meaty arms of its owner, the wife of the Land of Fire's feudal lord. Naruto smirked at the poor creature and thought, _"Serves him right, thought if that was my owner I'd want to run away to."_

In front of Squad 10, at large desk sat the Sandaime, Iruka, and several other shinobi who were handing out missions to various squads. The Sandaime picked up a piece of paper and said, "Now that that mission is complete, Asuma, your squad's next mission will be-" Suddenly, the door to the room was kicked open followed by a very pissed off Kiba and Ino. In unison, the two Squad 7 members shouted, "We want better missions!"

Kakashi walked up behind the two Genin and said, "You guys only became Genin a month ago, and you are still too inexperienced to take on any missions more difficult then D Rank."

Naruto was thinking along the same lines as the two loud mouths, but he had enough respect for the Sandaime to not go yelling his head off whining. Meanwhile, the Sandaime had been shuffling through some papers and said, "Kakashi I CAN send your squad on a C Ranked mission, but you will have to team up with Asuma's squad since your squad has the least missions done and his has the most out of the three rookie squads."

The brown headed dog-boy then asked, "How many missions have they done? We've done about ten they can't have that many more than us."

"On the contrary Kiba-kun, they've completed four times as many missions as you have while only working for fifteen days," the aging Hokage said. All the members of Squad 7, including Kakashi, were gasping in disbelief, while the members of Squad 10 were smiling confidently. "Kakashi, Asuma," the Sandaime began, "Your mission is to escort and protect a bridge builder from the Land of Waves back to his home country and watch over him until the bridge is complete. You may come in Tazuna-san."

With that, an old man with spiky, grey hair and a rough beard walked in while drinking a bottle of sake. He lowered the bottle from his lips and looked down at the Genin and said, "These little brats are going to be my escorts? You with the dog and stupid look on his face, are you really a ninja?" Kiba tried to jump at the old man in order to knock some sense into him, but was held back by his hood by Kakashi.

Kiba growled in protest, as the Sandaime said, "You all will meet Tazuna-san at the main gate in two hours, you are to depart then." The two squads walked out of the Hokage tower and went their separate ways.

With Squad 10, Naruto was complaining about why they had to work with such a degrading team, mostly due to the fact that Sasuke and Ino were both on it. The blonde said, "They're going to end up slowing us down." Surprisingly, both Hinata and Shikamaru nodded in agreement.

Asuma took another drag on his cigarette and said, "Well whether they hold us back or not, we've got to work with them. Even if Sasuke, Ino, and Kiba aren't as well team-oriented as you guys, Kakashi is still one of the strongest Jounin in the village." His team looked at him, somewhat dissatisfied with their sensei's explanation.

The white-eyed kunoichi then said, "Sasuke's the only person on Kakashi-sensei's squad with any talent, but the baka is too self-centered." Naruto smirked at his girlfriend's statement and nodded whole-heartedly in agreement. Then, surprisingly both Shikamaru and Asuma nodded in agreement too.

Asuma began thinking to himself as they continued walking, _"I really hate agreeing with them on stuff like this, but the truth is, is that these kids are right about Kakashi's squad. It also looks like the little Hyuuga heiress here is gaining more confidence in herself thanks to the blonde here."_ After they walked for another ten minutes or so, they all separated except for Naruto and Hinata who started walking off together towards the Hyuuga compound.

When they arrived, Hyuuga Hiashi, Hinata's father, was standing at the entrance. The old Hyuuga didn't look happy in the least. Hiashi had learned of Hinata's relationship with the fox-boy the night of their first kiss, and had immediately disapproved of it. Hinata however, had ignored her father's wish for her to stay away from the fox-boy and the previous night had flat out said to him, "Who I have a relationship without is none of your concern teme-baka." That line had left Hiashi shocked and later, infuriated.

Hiashi looked down at the blonde with cold, hate filled eyes, then over at his daughter who was firmly holding Naruto's hand. Just when Hiashi was about to speak, Hinata yelled out, "Why can't you except the fact that we're together father? Naruto-kun's done nothing to harm the village, ever! I know he has the Kyuubi inside of him, but that doesn't mean he is the Kyuubi!"

Hiashi just stared at his daughter for a moment, then without saying a word, turned and left the couple alone. Naruto turned towards his midnight-blue haired girlfriend and said, "Thank you for standing up for me Hinata-chan. I don't think I could ever talk to your father like that without fearing for my life." Hinata smiled warmly at him and said, "It's no problem Naruto-kun. I love you so I'll do anything I can to help you out when you need it."

Naruto pulled Hinata into a loving embrace and stared to cry, while saying, "Thank you Hinata-chan. Thank you so much!" drying his tears, Naruto continued, "We'll I better get going to my place so I can get ready for the mission." With that, Naruto and Hinata shared a passionate kiss before saying goodbye.

**Konohagakure Main Gate, 1 Hour After the Mission was to Begin**

"Where the hell is that damned Kakashi?!" Naruto roared out of impatience. A second later, said Jounin appeared in front of the group that had been _patiently_ waiting for him for just over an hour. He raised his right hand apologetically and said, "Sorry everyone, a black cat crossed my path and-"

"LAIR!!" all the Genin roared in anger. Kakashi sweat-dropped and then said sarcastically, "There really is no getting past _you_ all now is there?"

Tazuna, who had grown impatient long ago, yelled, "Hey are we leaving or what?! Now that this guy's here we can leave right?!" The group turned towards the bridge builder and then walked with him, out of the main gates of Konohagakure.

For about half an hour they walked along a dirt road, heading to the nearest port which was far off to the northeast. While walking, they passed a lone puddle of water in the middle of the road. Sasuke, Kiba, and Ino thought little of it, but all the other ninja knew very well that it was suspicious.

Not a second after the group had past the puddle, two ninja, both with large claws on their hands and masks covering their noses and mouths attacked. In mere seconds, they had quickly sliced both Kakashi and Asuma to ribbons with their claws, and then they turned their attention to Tazuna.

"Hinata, Ino get in front of Tazuna!" Naruto yelled, as he ran at one of the ninja, and landed a successful dropkick to the side of his head. While one of the ninja had been knocked to the side, the other came up behind Naruto, and a split second before his claw would have sliced his apart, the ninja stopped in his tracks. Shikamaru was off to the side and smirked saying, "Kagemane no Jutsu success!"

Kiba and Ino, who had frozen up, leaving Hinata to protect Tazuna alone, just watched this in amazement. Sasuke however was pissed off, due to the fact that he had been incapable of reacting quick enough to aid Naruto and Shikamaru.

The one ninja who had been kicked off to the side before, appeared out of the bushes behind Hinata, however, he was stopped in his tracks when Asuma appeared out of nowhere and punched the mysterious ninja in the gut, while wearing his trench knives. The ninja immediately passed out. As for the one Shikamaru had bound with his Kagemane, he had just been knocked out by Kakashi.

As Asuma began to tie up the two ninja who they now saw wore headbands of Kirigakure, he said, "Excellent job Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru." Kakashi walked over to Sasuke and sighed, saying, "I expected better of you Sasuke, especially since you're so determined to surpass _him_." Sasuke flinched at this remark and anger was quickly written all over his face.

Ino ran over to Kakashi and asked, "Kakashi-sensei, how did you and Asuma-sensei survive? We all saw you two get torn to pieces!" Kakashi turned to the blue-eyed girl and said, "We knew they were there, so we made a couple of Kage Bunshin to distract them. I believe that Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru knew they were there too."

Ino looked quizzically at her sensei and asked, "Then why didn't you take care of them when you sensed them?" Kakashi's face turned serious, or at least that's what his eye said. He answered, "If we had done that then we wouldn't have known who they were after. They could've been enemy shinobi out to kill Asuma and myself, or…" Kakashi's right eye trailed off and looked at Tazuna.

Suddenly, one of the two enemy ninja who had been conscious and was listening quietly, finally became impatient a roared, "How did you even know we were here?! We left no trace when we hid in our Genjutsu!"

Naruto walked over to him and looked at the sky and explained, "Do you think we're stupid or something?! It's a hot, sunny day and it has rained for weeks. Why would one lonely puddle be out in the middle of the path? It was obviously a Genjutsu, only a complete baka wouldn't be able to notice." The way Naruto finished irked, the Genin of Squad 7, since it was obvious he was referring to them.

Kakashi walked over to the ninja and asked, "So why would the Demon Brothers of Kirigakure be out here? Who are you working for?"

The Kirinin smirked under his mask and barked, "Like I'll ever tell you!" Kakashi sighed and pulled up his headband, and reveled his left eye. It was only for a brief moment, but the Genin all got a look at it. Sasuke and Hinata thought simultaneously, _"Sharingan!"_

Kakashi stood up and said, "This mission is now beyond C-Rank. These were Chuunin level shinobi, and if more are coming after their target, Jounin level will be sent next time." This brought a bit of shock to the Squad 7 Genin, while the ones from Squad 10 remained calm and collected. "At the moment, it be would best to turn back and have a more appropriate escort assigned. After all, this mission could very well reach A Rank by the time we arrive in the Land of Waves."

The Genin looked at each other and finally they all said in unison, "Let's continue the mission!" Asuma wasn't surprised that his team was up for it, but was surprised mostly from Ino and Kiba since they had frozen up during the Demon brother's attack. Kakashi then said, "Very well, but I will need an explanation from Tazuna eventually." The old bridge builder looked rather grim at this statement.

**A Few Days Later in the Land of Waves**

The group had successfully made it to the Land of Waves without another incident. Tazuna had explained that the Land of Waves is a poor country, and that he was unable to pay the amount for a mission above Rank C. He apologized for his lie, and promised to eventually pay Konohagakure the appropriate sums once he had finished building his bridge. He also explained that the Land of Waves had basically fallen under the marital law of a corrupt business tycoon named Gatou, and that it was him who had hired the ninja to assassinate him, to prevent the bridge's completion.

The group was now walking along a dirt path towards Tazuna's house, when Kiba jumped in front of the group and said, "I think I heard something!" without saying anything else, the dog-boy through a kunai into the bushes. Ino ran up and smacked him in the back of the head. Kiba then ran over to the bushes and found a terrified rabbit, with snow white fur.

Everyone but the Squad 7 Genin immediately knew that someone had used the replacement technique, since it was obviously a domestic rabbit that was raised indoors. Suddenly, Kakashi and Asuma yelled out, "Everybody down!" Everyone immediately ducked as a huge, cleaver-like sword came in swooping inches above them. The sword crashed into a tree and the apparent owned landed on the handle.

He looked down at the group and said, "Well, if it isn't Hatake "Sharingan" Kakashi and the former member of the Twelve Guardians of Fire, Sarutobi Asuma."

Kakashi walked up and said, "Well if it isn't the Demon of Kirigakure, Momochi Zabuza!"

"So it seems that I'm even known in Konohagakure. Well to bad you'll have to die here and now Kakashi, after all Kiri's Bingo Book says to kill you on sight." The tall shinobi then turned his gaze on Asuma, "And you Sarutobi Asuma, you have a very high bounty on your head. I believe it was thirty-five million." This shocked all of the Genin, who were wondering why Asuma would have a bounty on his head.

Asuma took a drag on his cigarette and said lazily, "I guess that's what I get for being a Guardian of Fire, not that I regret it."

Zabuza then started laughing evilly and said coldly, "Well after today you will regret it, unless you're kind enough to step out of the way and let me kill the bridge builder." Immediately, all of the Genin stood around Tazuna, Squad 10 in front of him and Squad 7 behind. "I'd tell those brats of yours to stay out of the way unless they want to die!" Zabuza shouted jumping down to the ground. He then made a few hand signs and called out, "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Quickly, a heavy fog came out of nowhere and Zabuza vanished from sight.

The Jounin rejoined their students and Kakashi and Asuma said, "All right you guys this is where all your training gets put to the test, so stay on your guard."

**A/N: The battle with Zabuza has begun woot! cough Ok so now is when you the readers help me out. Tomorrow night chapter 6 WILL BE POSTED! I need votes in on Haku's gender so please vote! I'm counting on everyone so R&R and see you tomorrow!**


	6. AN 1

**A/N: Ok let me tell you guys the good new first. I counted the votes. (As of 9am EST.) And at 7 to 3 Haku will be… a girl! I thank all of you who voted and those of you who didn't vote but left reviews. I just want to say something though; Hinata WILL BE OOC from how she is in the anime/manga. If you find fault with this and don't like her saying things that could be hurtful to others don't read my fic. Anyway she'll do that very little. I had her say what she said in the last chapter because Sasuke is self-centered, Ino is basically the weakest of the kunoichi out of Squads 7, 8, 10, and 13, and Kiba only showed off that he had talent during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Ok enough ranting now. There's some bad news though, I may not be able to post chapter 6 tonight because my grandfather is having someone come over to take a look at the cable lines cause the internet has gone wack in every room but mine. I will update ASAP and if you see nothing tonight then you can expect a double dose for Ch. 6 and Ch. 7 tomorrow. Thanks for taking time to read my fic and I hope you like what's coming up, laters!**

**-Frace**


	7. Teamwork Works!

**A/N: Ok this is the second chapter for the Journey to Wave. I don't plan on rushing things so it might be another chapter or two till I finish. Anyway I said this in the A/N before but Haku is a girl and that's not changing because personally, I too wanted to write Haku as a girl not a guy. Anyway I'll try my best with writing this fight since I haven't ever written a long extensive one before. Also I want to start asking for votes if you guys want other pairings besides NaruHina, ShikaTema, InoKiba (if I do it), and AnkoKaka, later on. Make your suggestions when you review. Ok enough babble let's get this fight started!**

**Chapter 6: Teamwork Works!**

The Jounin rejoined their students and Kakashi and Asuma said, "All right you guys this is where all your training gets put to the test, so stay on your guard." The Genin readied themselves, when Zabuza spoke demonically out of the mist, "Eight targets: The larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular and subclavian artery, kidneys, and the heart. Now which one will I strike?"

Zabuza's threat left all the Genin, even Naruto shaking. Akamaru, Kiba's dog had run for safety by hiding inside his owner's jacket. Slowly, the mist began to thicken, and along with it, the bloodlust that seemed to be pouring off of Zabuza from where ever he was in the mist.

After about a minute, the mist had become so thick, that the shinobi could barely see anything. At this point, Asuma finished the cigarette he was smoking, calmly spat the butt out of his mouth, and enhanced his trench knives with wind infused chakra. With a quick cross slash, the mist dispersed, but Zabuza was nowhere to be seen.

Out of all the Genin, Sasuke was the most tense. As he gripped his kunai with both hands, the silver haired Jounin said calmly, "Sasuke, calm down! I will not allow my comrades to die!"

"We'll just see about that," Zabuza said emotionlessly, appearing in the middle of the Genin. "Now die!" the nuke-Kirinin roared as he swung his giant sword. Reacting quickly, Asuma and Kakashi knocked their students and Tazuna out of the way, while also dodging Zabuza's attack. During all this, Kakashi had managed to stab Zabuza in the gut with a kunai.

A moment later, another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, as the one he had stabbed dissolved, revealing it as a Mizu Bunshin. As Zabuza raised his sword to cleave Kakashi in half, Asuma rushed forward and sliced off both of Zabuza's arms. Unfortunately, this Zabuza was a Mizu Bunshin as well.

Asuma turned to the Genin who had since regrouped around Tazuna and smiled a confident smile that said, "Don't worry everything will be fine." A split second later, Zabuza was behind Asuma, and planting his sword in the ground, he nailed a kick right to the back of Asuma's head, effectively knocking him out. "Asuma-sensei!" Squad 10 yelled.

Naruto clenched his fists in anger, Hinata began to activate her Byakugan, and Shikamaru was preparing to use his Kagemane, when Kakashi stepped between them and Zabuza saying, "Stay out of this fight! He's in a whole different league than you guys; you don't stand a chance even attacking him as a group!"

Zabuza began to laugh demonically and said, "Your sensei's right, you rank Genin wouldn't stand a chance against me in a thousand years…" He took a deep breath before looking down at his saying, "That's because at your age these hands were already stained red with blood!" Almost immediately, all of the Genin were shaking violently; Ino was shaking so much she couldn't even hold her kunai before dropping down to her knees in fear.

Kakashi, standing upright now said, "In Kirigakure no Sato, also know has the Village Hidden in Bloody Mist, their graduation exam was… rather inhumane. That is until one year, something rather unspeakable happened."

Nervously, the brown-haired dog-boy asked, "What happened that change their graduation exam? And what about it was so inhumane?"

Kakashi sighed deeply and continued his explanation, "Up until that year, students from the academy would graduate by facing one another in one on one combat, those battles would be decided only after one of the students was dead. But one year, an entire group of over one hundred graduates where beaten up by a child who wasn't even a ninja. That child is the man that stands before you, the Demon of Kirigakure, Momochi Zabuza."

Zabuza took in a long breathe, almost one of ecstasy, then said, "It felt so… GOOD!" Zabuza then appeared behind Kakashi and once again tried to cleave the Jounin in half, Kakashi just jumped back, allowing the sword to bury itself in the ground. Zabuza then used it for lift and kicked the silver haired shinobi square in the chest and sent him flying back into the nearby body of water.

As Kakashi rose to the surface, Zabuza was quickly on top of him and cried out, "Suiroo no Jutsu **(Water Prison Technique)**!" Kakashi immediately found himself trapped in an orb of water and yelled at the Genin, "Get out here now, all of you! You don't stand a chance against him! Grab Asuma and the bridge builder and run!"

Kiba stepped up, though still shaking and said, "Why the hell would we do that?! Didn't you tell us, 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash,'?!" Kakashi smiled under his mask, happy to know that at least one of his teachings had gotten through to his students.

Tazuna stepped up behind the dog-boy and said, "If that's something you all believe in then, don't worry about me just go help your sensei!" All the Genin nodded, including Ino who had finally managed to get back on her feet even though she was still shaking horribly.

Naruto quickly began to build up chakra and soon was surrounded by a fiery red aura. Kakashi and Hinata both realized that Naruto must have learned to control some of the Kyuubi's power. Naruto called out to his teammates and said, "Shikamaru, you and Ino watch Tazuna! Hinata, Sasuke, Kiba, and I will take out no brows over there!" Zabuza twitched slightly at the statement.

The Genin quickly readied themselves, Hinata activating her Byakugan, Kiba using the Shikyaku no Jutsu and Juujin no Bunshin with Akamaru, and Sasuke grabbing a kunai.

Zabuza was rather surprised that a bunch of Genin were actually going to try fighting him, just for the sake of their sensei. He quietly whispered to Kakashi, "You have some very loyal students, Kakashi. It's unfortunate that their loyalty will lead them to their deaths.

Naruto now looked at his teammates and seeing them ready, he smirked and said to them, "Ok guys, let's go wild!" Naruto charged right at Zabuza, with Sasuke right behind him. Hinata took Zabuza's right flank while Kiba and Akamaru took the left. Kiba and Akamaru, who were the fastest, jumped at the edge of the water and yelled out "Gatsuga!"

Zabuza seeing he had no other way to avoid the attack, released the chakra in his feet and slowly sank into the water, while still keeping a hand in Kakashi's prison to maintain it. Suddenly, the underwater current picked up and seemed to be being drawn over to the shore where Zabuza vaguely made out that white-eyed girl spinning like a top and drawing all of the water upward, creating a small typhoon. Zabuza, no longer able to hold Kakashi's prison, released it and was sucked into the small vortex.

After being spit out on the top, he looked up at the sky and saw the blonde-brat falling down towards him. Naruto brought his foot down on Zabuza's face with a sickening crack. Zabuza began falling back down to the water when he heard Kakashi yell out, "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu **(Water Release: Great Waterfall technique)**!" As Zabuza was washed away until he was slammed into a tree, Sasuke was throwing a flurry of shuriken and kunai at him, many striking him in the chest and arms, but not deep enough to kill.

Kakashi landed on a low branch on the tree where Zabuza was pinned and looked at him, with an icy stare and said, "The road ends for you here Zabuza, now can you see where you're ambitions have gotten you. You tried a coup d'état on Kirigakure and failed at assassinating the Mizukage. Now you plan on doing it all over again. Well you never will get a chance to since you will die here and now." As Kakashi set himself to finish Zabuza with a few kunai, the nukenin was stabbed through the neck with a couple of senbon, effectively ending his life.

Kakashi jumped down from the branch while covering his eye up again and was about to examine Zabuza when a masked kunoichi jumped down beside Zabuza's corpse. She said, "Thank you for weakening him, I've been hunting him for some time now but he was always a step ahead of me. I thank you again, now if you'll excuse me." The young girl picked up Zabuza's corpse and silently disappeared. As everyone, including Asuma who had just regained consciousness, ran over to Kakashi, Ino asked, "Kakashi-sensei who was that kid?"

The silver haired Jounin sighed and replied, "She was a Hunter-nin of Kirigakure. Hunter-nin are a type of ninja who are specialized at hunting down nukenin like Zabuza and killing them. After their target is dead, the dispose of the body, and leave no trace of its existence." Suddenly, Kakashi just fell down on his back, saying somewhat painfully, "It looks like I used up to much chakra." Shikamaru sighed and Asuma scratched the back of his head and both said lazily, "How troublesome." Everyone stared for a second then broke out in laughter. After a moment of two, Tazuna said, "Let's get going everyone my house isn't far, just follow me." For about ten minutes, the group walked in silence as they followed Tazuna to his home. Asuma carried Kakashi with the aid of Naruto and Sasuke who refused to look at each other the whole way.

**With the Hunter-nin**

The female Hunter-nin who had dragged off Zabuza's corpse is leaning over it and about to pull one of the senbon of his neck, when Zabuza's arm shoots up and grabs it then yanks it out. The nukenin says, "You know you could have been more careful Haku, any closer and you would have actually killed me."

"You really _will_ die if you keep pulling the senbon out like that. Normally though, a person would be out cold for a week but you were only out for about half an hour, though I'd expect nothing less from you, Zabuza-sama."

**At Tazuna's House**

Kakashi is resting on a futon in order to recover from exhausting his chakra in the fight with Zabuza, while Asuma is holding an ice pack on the very large lump on the back of his head. Only at the request of Tazuna's daughter Tsunami, is Asuma not smoking. Naruto, Hinata, and the other Genin are sitting at a table talking with Tazuna when Kakashi wakes up.

It's obvious that the silver haired Jounin is still exhausted, but not as much as he was before. He looks at everyone and says, "Something's really bugging me and I can't put my finger on it." Naruto quickly asks, "Is it Zabuza?" Kakashi slowly nods, trying to use as little energy as possible. He then lies on his back and says, "Normally after a Hunter-nin has found had killed its target, it will immediately begin to dispose of the body no matter who is around. They _never_ move the body to a different location."

Ino then asks, "What are you saying sensei, we all saw that girl kill Zabuza so we have nothing to worry about." Shikamaru sighs then explains, "What he's trying to say is that that girl might actually have been working with Zabuza and that he could still be alive. In all likelihood, she struck close enough to the vitals with those senbon to put Zabuza in a simulated death so we would think he's dead."

"But that means…" Ino began worriedly. "That Zabuza is most likely alive," Asuma finished, finally taking the now melted ice pack off the back of his head. The chain smoker then looks at his fellow Jounin and asks, "How long will it take you to be at 100 Kakashi?"

Kakashi sighs through his mask and replies, "Probably a week, but even then, I may not be in the best shape." Shikamaru sighed, "This going to be so damn troublesome."

**A/N: Hope you like the variation to the Zabuza fight I made and for those who thought I was demeaning Kiba I had him help out to show he's not a complete loser in this story. Anyway I may be writing a NaruAnko one-shot sometime this week since I had this really weird dream where I was writing one. Anyway put in suggestions for couples you wanna see that won't end in a NaruHarem. I have stuff planned for ShikaTema but I'm not sure about others. R&R and expect Chapter 7 sometime tonight!**


	8. Tree Climbing and Water Walking

**A/N: Ok this chapter will be the tree climbing exercise and I may add in something extra to it and the start of the battle on the bridge. Hopefully I can end the Journey to Wave in the next chapter but I have to see. I've gotten a lot of requests for what to do with Haku so I'm going to let you readers and reviewers to decide her fate. You can have Haku either: 1. Play a big sister figure to Naruto and Hinata, 2. Pair up with Gaara, or 3. Make it a threesome with Naruto and Hinata. You can also have a mixture of choices 1 and 2 since Naruto befriends Gaara. I also want you guys to decide if Ino should be with Kiba or Chouji. Ok now time for the next chapter since I've been ranting way to long here.**

**Chapter 7: Tree Climbing and Water Walking**

The group is now eating dinner at their first night at Tazuna's house. Kakashi has proposed that starting the next morning the Genin will train to prepare for the upcoming encounter with Zabuza. While they do this, Asuma will be guarding Tazuna at the bridge. As Tsunami begins to dish out the food, she yells upstairs, "Inari, come on down dinner's ready hunny."

The shuffling of feet could be heard from upstairs as the group began to discuss how they might be able to defeat Zabuza when he eventually attacked again and if he'd bring help with him. Asuma said, "Well Zabuza is certainly a strong opponent, probably the toughest I've faced in a long while." He then proceeded to rub the back of his head where Zabuza had kicked him.

"I've got a bad feeling that that masked girl who carried him off is his partner," Shikamaru said, obviously troubled. The others nodded in agreement since most of them had come to the same conclusion. "But Tazuna-san, didn't you say you were being targeted but that guy Gatou?"

Tazuna sighed, "Yea… the bastard's had a vice-grip on the whole country ever since he arrived. The people are too frightened to stand up to him since those few who have…" the bridge builder then trailed off showing signs that it was a sore subject he tended to avoid.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to Tazuna-san. Sometimes personal things can be difficult to talk about," the Hyuuga heiress said politely. She then looked over towards her blue-eyed boy friend who knew she was referring to his past.

The blonde then said, "I think I've got a plan for how we can deal with both Zabuza and Gatou at the same time and-" he was then cut off when a young boy in green suspenders, a faded yellow shirt and a striped blue and white hat, who had just walked into the kitchen and yelled, "Don't be stupid! You can't beat Gatou because the good guys never win!"

Tsunami sighed at the little boy and softly said, "Inari…"

Kiba stood up out of his seat and yelled at the boy, "What do you know squirt?! We're gonna kick his and Zabuza's asses!" While Kiba said this, Akamaru barked and growled at the boy causing him to take a step back.

Inari looked sternly at the dog-boy with a visible frown on his face. He then spat, "What do you know?! You're not even from here! What Gatou does isn't even any of your business so why don't you just leave, 'cause none of you know what suffering is like." The last sentence visibly shook Naruto since he now stood up out of his chair.

"Just shut the hell up you damn little brat! 'don't know what suffering's like' my ass! Try being the enemy of the very village you were born in and hated by nearly all of its inhabitants!" It was more than obvious that Naruto was angered by what Inari had said. The little boy however, now had tears welling up in his eyes. He turned and ran out of the kitchen and up to his room. Tsunami silently said, "Inari," as everyone heard him slam his door shut upstairs.

Ino turned to her fellow blonde and yelled, "Naruto-baka, you didn't have to be so harsh!" Naruto ignored her and walked over to the door. Asuma stood up and asked, "Where do you think you're going Naruto?"

Naruto opened the door and spat at his sensei, "For a walk!" He then stepped out, slamming the door behind him.

All the noise had woken Kakashi up, who said sarcastically, "Well that was a lovely talk they had just now, now wasn't it?" Everyone just sweat-dropped at the Sharingan barer.

Tazuna sighed when Ino asked, while looking at a picture of Tazuna's family, why it was torn, as if someone deliberately removed a person from it. Tazuna then told a story of how a man named Kaiza who had come to the Land of Waves and befriended Inari. He finished the story by saying how Inari changed after Gatou had him executed one year ago. Asuma then proceeded to head upstairs and said, "I'll go talk to Inari."

The young boy from Wave meanwhile was sobbing over a picture of a well built man, with spiky black hair and a ribbon tied around his forehead. Between sobs one could vaguely make out the word, "Dad" being said over and over.

As Asuma stepped up to the boy from behind, he lit a cigarette and placed it in his mouth. Inari quickly hid the photograph, but not before the chain smoking Jounin noticed it. He sat down next to Inari on his bed when the little boy said, "You know smoking's bad for you, ne?"

Asuma raised an eyebrow at Inari and nodded slightly, saying, "Yea I know, but it's an old habit I just can't break. But you know Inari, Naruto said what he said because, well, the kid hasn't exactly had a normal childhood. The poor kid grew up without a mother or a father and he has no family inside the village as far as anyone knows."

Inari was shocked at what Asuma told him about the blonde loudmouth who had yelled at him earlier. Asuma then continued, "Even though Naruto grew up without the love of parents, he knows how to love and treat others kindly, unless you piss him off that is. But he's got a strong heart like you wouldn't believe, and even though he was beaten up regularly by his own people, the villagers of Konoha, that kid's spirit never broke, hell, it may have made it all the stronger." Asuma took a final drag on his cigarette before flicking it out the window and saying, "The point I'm trying to make is, if you dwell on the past to much it'll only weigh you down and you'll never get a chance to enjoy the good things in life. Just watch us; we'll help get this land out of Gatou's grasp even if it's not our business." Asuma then stood up and walked out of Inari's room saying goodnight to the young boy.

After Naruto returned about a half hour later, everyone went to sleep, though due to a shortage of futons, Naruto and Hinata were forced to sleep together. The whole night as they slept, they both had a constant blush on their face.

**Next Morning in the Woods Outside of Town**

"So what's this training that you and Asuma-sensei are having us do Kakashi-sensei?" asked a certain brown haired dog-boy. Kakashi, who due to exhausting himself by overusing his Sharingan, needs two crutches to standup, sighs, "This is the last time I'm going to explain it Kiba, some of you aren't very good at manipulating your chakra, so for the next week you'll be doing two different exercises to help with that. First," Kakashi then reaches into his tool pouch and throws a kunai in front of each Genin. He continues, "You'll be climbing trees without using your hands. You can use these kunai here to mark how high you get just before you fall."

Ino then burst out, "How on earth can we climb trees without using our hands?!" Kakashi sighed for what must've been the hundredth time that day and walked over to a tree. Slowly, Kakashi started to climb up it as if he were walking on normal ground. Ino and Kiba were shocked at this, while Sasuke wasn't since he had seen family members do this before, and Team 10 had already done this exercise with Asuma so they knew exactly what to do. Eventually, Kakashi was hanging upside down from a low branch on the tree. He then quickly, well as quickly as someone with crutches could, climbed down the tree and said, "Now you guys can try."

Each Genin grabbed their kunai and ran towards their own tree. Squad 10 and Ino performed the task easily, all four of them making it more than halfway up their trees, while Sasuke walked up about fifteen feet before losing control. Kiba on the other hand, who didn't use enough chakra, slipped on his first step and the back of his head and a nice quick chat with Mr. Ground. **(lol sorry I just had to put in something funny like that since nothing really funny has happened yet this chapter.)**

Kiba was rolling on the ground clutching the back of his head, while Sasuke looked angrily up at his four teammates who managed to climb their trees. Kakashi walking forward, looked up at the four and started to clap, and then said, "Excellent, since you four did so well I'll hold the second exercise up till tomorrow. You guys can on back to Tazuna's house and find out where he and Asuma are."

Squad 10 plus Ino all smiled and cheered, then quickly ran down their trees, Naruto unfortunately went a little too fast and crashed into the ground, face first. The mumbled words, "Hello gravity," could be heard from the careless blonde. This got a laugh out of everyone except for Sasuke, who was still pissed that four of his fellow Genin could manipulate chakra more efficiently then he could.

As the group soon began to walk off, Kiba, who had just fallen for the fourth time yelled, "Hey Ino!" The blonde girl turned and said, "What do you want dog-boy? I got the rest of the day off from training and I sure don't want to waste here in this smelly forest."

Kiba whispered into her ear, "Do you think you could give me a tip or two on how I can get up this damn tree? I mean I know if I use too little I just fall and hit my head, and if I use too much the force just bounces me off the tree." Ino sighed at her teammate and said, "If you know that much all I can tell you is to focus solely on your feet and keep the chakra output as steady as possible." Kiba smiled at Ino and said, "Thanks," before running off to try to climb up his tree again. Though he didn't make it as close as the others, who ran about a hundred and fifty feet up, Kiba did get higher than Sasuke, which caused the "last" Uchiha to fume an enormous amount of killing intent towards the dog-boy.

All the champion brooder could think was, _"How can I be the _worst_ at controlling my chakra?! At this rate, I'll never be able to kill _him_."_ Sasuke and Kiba would keep on climbing until long after Kakashi left that evening, neither still making it as high as their fellow Genin, but they were closing the gap.

**With Zabuza and Haku**

"Dammit!" roared the Kiri-nukenin as he felt an uncomfortable twitch ring through his body. He then reached up towards his neck where two senbon had been struck through the previous day. "At this rate it'll be a whole damn week before I'm well enough to fight Kakashi again!"

The young girl Haku, gently applied some ointment to Zabuza's neck and back in order to relax the tightened muscles. "You should get some rest Zabuza-sama, it will help a great deal in your recovery."

The ex-ANBU captain sighed, "You're as right as ever Haku, just keep watch incase Gatou should decide to pay a visit."

Suddenly, the door to the two Kirinin's apartment was broken in soon followed by a pompous, "Knock knock." A short, grey-haired man with a cane and an arrogant smile on his face walked in followed closely by two katana wielding thugs.

Zabuza looked at the man coldly and muttered, "Gatou."

Gatou walked over towards Zabuza's bed with a smirk on his face and said, "I thought I ordered you to kill that damned bridge builder Tazuna. I'm paying you good money for you to kill him and the job still isn't done!" Gatou then reached out to grab the nukenin, but Haku grabbed his forearm and spat, "Don't you dare lay a finger on Zabuza-sama!" Gatou tried to get the girl to release his arm and spat back, "You brat! Let go of my arm!" Haku did this and the cirrupt tycoon grabbed his arm in pain. The two thugs began to draw their katana when Haku suddenly appeared behind them with a senbon at each of their necks. Both said, "When… How did she?"

Zabuza said to the young girl, "Down Haku!" Haku did as Zabuza ordered and lowered her senbon and walked back to his bedside. As Gatou began to step out, he yelled back, "I'll remember this!"

**Tazuna's House Later that Evening**

The group had just finished eating dinner, Sasuke and Kiba had eaten more than everyone else and ended up hurling some back up. Naruto turned his head to Hinata and Shikamaru and asked, "Hey you two want to go out for a little bit of practice before we get set for bed?" Hinata nodded her head furiously, while Shikamaru said, "No thanks it would be too troublesome." The lazy genius then walked over to Asuma and the two were soon playing a game of Shogi.

As Naruto and Hinata walked along the walkway away from Tazuna's house, the blonde snaked his arm around his girlfriend's waist and pulled her close to him. The white-eyed girl giggled lightly at the blonde's antics and a sweet smile crept onto her face. Inside Naruto's mind, the Kyuubi was cheering on his container, **"You really know how to please your lady don't ya Kit. At the rate you're going, you'll be fu-"** _"Quiet you damn fox, I'm too young to do stuff like that with Hinata-chan,"_ Naruto cut off the demon. **"Age is nothing but a number Kit, remember that when you start lusting for her."** The Kyuubi started cackling madly as he retreated back into Naruto's mind.

The couple soon found a small clearing in the nearby woods and sparred for about half an hour, before returning to Tazuna's house.

**The Following Morning After Breakfast**

The group was now split in two, Kiba and Sasuke were off tree climbing with a Kage Bunshin of Kakashi to monitor them, and Squad 10 plus Ino were with the real Kakashi preparing for their second training exercise. Asuma was still off guarding Tazuna at the bridge, until some of the Genin had completed both exercises. Kakashi led the four Genin to a small secluded bay near Tazuna's house. When they arrived Naruto asked, "So what's the second exercise Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired Jounin calmly said, "Water walking." It took about half a second for this to register in the four Genin's heads before they shouted, "WHAT?!"

Kakashi laughed silently under his mask at his students' response and said, "The previous exercise was to see if you could output chakra efficiently to hold your feet to a tree while climbing it. This exercise is to see how well you can maintain a constant output of chakra and keeping it at the same level to keep you from sinking." The four shinobi nodded their heads indicating that they understood. "Your goal is to stand on the surface for five minutes without sinking or having to return to solid ground for a break," the masked ninja explained. "Once you complete this exercise you will join Asuma in guarding Tazuna-san."

So carefully, each of the Genin took a few steps out onto the water. What happened next was pretty much what Kakashi expected. Hinata gracefully walked around on the water with so much as losing her balance, almost as if walking on water was second nature to her. The case was pretty much the same with Ino, though she had a stumble here and there, she didn't sink. Shikamaru had some difficultly, since at first he started to sink then after a few minutes he started tire and began to sink further. Naruto walked around on the surface successfully in the beginning, then, he got overconfident and lost focus, causing him to sink like a lead weight.

Hinata and Ino were first to finish after only half an hour and Shikamaru was able to just stay on the water for the five minutes before chakra exhaustion got the best of him and he sank. Kakashi told him to go rest for the rest of the day and that Asuma, Hinata, and Ino would be enough of a guard for Tazuna. It was getting close to sunset when Naruto finally managed to keep his focus long enough to stay above water for five minutes. By this time, Sasuke and Kiba had both finished the tree climbing exercise and joined the blonde in training on the water. The dog-boy and the brooder had even less success than Naruto did when he first started. Sasuke and Kiba wouldn't complete the water walking exercise until the next day.

**A/N: I'm so sorry this is up late I've had a bad case of writer's block the past two days so I didn't get this done. Anyway, chapter 8 will be up later today I swear. I need votes if you guys want Tsunade to return before the Chuunin exams start or if you want her to be found like in the original story. Please vote in your reviews for this and what I mentioned in the A/N at the beginning of the chapter. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your reviews.**


	9. New Friend and the Battle on the Bridge

**A/N: Ok Even though I've only gotten over ten reviews at the moment I've decided on some things. First Haku will be in a threesome with Naruto and Hinata, though I have no clue how I'm going to make it work out. And second, I think I'll have Tsunade come back while the Wave arc is still going. I'm only doing this because I would like to see Sarutobi survive the fight with Orochimaru. So here are current pairings and those coming up: NaruHinaHaku, ShikaTema, InoChou, and maybe AnkoKaka, AsumaKure, and maybe I'll put Sakura with someone. Ok enough of my stupid ranting here's the battle on the bridge and return journey to Konoha.**

**Chapter 8: A New Friend and the Battle on the Bridge**

**Konohagakure a Few Days After Squad 7 and 10's Departure**

We find Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage working on a seemingly endless amount of paperwork. This, the old man knows, is the part of the job every Kage fears once he or she is in office. Suddenly there's a knock on the door to his office and without looking up from his paperwork, the Professor says, "Enter." His secretary opens the door and says, "Pardon me Hokage-sama, but one of the Sannin, Tsunade-sama has requested to see you." Sarutobi's eyes grow wide at this news and thinks to himself, _"What could she be doing back in Konoha? Last I heard she was in Earth Country running from more debt collectors."_

The aging Hokage looked up from his work and said calmly, "Send her in." Not a moment later, a busty blonde with her hair back in two ponytails who appeared to be in her twenties stepped into the Sandaime's office. Behind her, was a short, black-haired woman in black and white robes carrying a pig. The blonde bowed slightly and said, "It's good to see you again, Sarutobi-sensei." Sarutobi replied, "Same here Tsunade, though I can say that I'm surprised to see you back in Konoha willingly after so many years."

"Hai, I came back because I heard rumors of Orochimaru-teme preparing forces to attack the village while in the Grass Country," Tsunade explained, causing Sarutobi to grow wide-eyed. Sarutobi looked sternly at his former student and said, "I think it would be best if told me everything about these rumors."

**Land of Waves Two Nights After the Genin Completed their Training**

The group is sitting around the kitchen table in Tazuna's house discussing how they are going to get rid of Gatou and eventually Zabuza, when he decided to show his brow-less face as Naruto put it. "Ok then, tomorrow, Asuma, you and your team will perform recon on Gatou's headquarters and attack the following day, while me and my team keep an eye out for Zabuza and protect Tazuna," Kakashi reviewed with his fellow shinobi.

Naruto stood up along with Hinata and then said, "Before we go to bed, me and Hinata are gonna go out and have a quick sparring session." With that, the midnight-blue haired girl and the blonde boy stepped out of Tazuna's house. Kakashi put his hand up to his chin and asked, "Now why would those two go out every night for a 'quick' spar and not return for a few hours?" Everyone present quickly caught on to what he was implying and Ino proceeded to smack her sensei in the back of the head with a chair shouting, "Ero-Sensei! They're too young to be doing perverted stuff like that!"

Shikamaru and Asuma both scratched the back of their heads trying to hold their laughter in before saying in unison, "Perverted as it may be, he does have a point." This caused everyone to laugh and Shikamaru to mutter something, but the only decipherable word was "troublesome."

Long after everyone had gone to bed, Hinata and Naruto still hadn't returned. Both ninja had fallen asleep while resting after their match, sitting side by side against a tree, the fox-boy with his arm protectively holding the Hyuuga heiress around the waist and the girl having her head resting on the boy's shoulder.

**The Next Morning**

A young girl in a pink floral kimono, with black hair that went down just past her shoulders and two bangs that did the same, was picking herbs and grasses when she saw two people sleeping against a tree. They were a boy and a girl, both of them visibly in training outfits and with their headbands hanging loosely from their necks. The boy had blonde hair and marks on his face that looked the whiskers of some animal. The girl had midnight-blue hair that barely reached her shoulders. The girl's eyes narrowed and she said to herself, "It's those two, from when I was forced to rescue Zabuza-sama."

She silently drew a senbon from the folds of her kimono and began walking towards the two shinobi. As she got closer, she saw them stir and quickly hid her senbon. She walked over to them and asked kindly, "Hey, are you two ok? You know you can catch a cold easily if you sleep out here."

The couple's eyes fluttered open and they said in unison, "Oh, hello." Hinata lifted her head from Naruto's shoulder as the blonde quickly pulled his arm from his girlfriend's hip. Naruto stared at the girl for a moment before saying, "You look familiar, have we met before?" Hinata was about to ask the same thing. She knew it wasn't the girl's face, but more her hair that seemed familiar. They both shook it off as them being drowsy.

The girl then asked, "What were you two doing out here in the middle of the forest sleeping?" The couple replied, "We were training." Naruto took a moment to look at the girl and realized she was almost as pretty as Hinata, though he'd never say this aloud. Hinata however, thought that the girl was far prettier than she was, but then she mentally slapped herself for thinking like her old, unconfident self.

The girl however, was looking at both of them with a slight blush in her cheeks while thinking, _"I didn't notice it the other day but, this boy is kind of hot, and his girlfriend looks extremely beautiful."_ She then decided to ask, "So what are your names?"

The blonde grinned a very fox-like and replied, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and this is my girlfriend and first love, Hyuuga Hinata. What's yours?" She quickly answered back, "Haku." Haku didn't want to admit it, but she found both the boy and the girl attractive, but kept this to herself knowing that they were her enemies. She also didn't mind the fact that she thought Hinata was beautiful since she had long ago admitted to herself that she was bi.

Naruto and Hinata stood up, as did Haku, and the black haired girl said, "Did anyone ever tell you, that you two look like you were made for each other?" The blonde and the midnight-blue were quickly blushing enough for a tomato to envy. Haku giggled to herself at this and then turned her back to couple and started to walk off. She turned her head and said, "Hopefully we'll meet again soon." A slight blush was on Haku's face, though at the distance between her and the couple, it went unnoticed.

Naruto turned to his girlfriend and said, "She was really nice for someone we just met, though I have the strangest feeling that we've seen her before." They both then simultaneously imaged Haku in a Kirigakure Hunter-nin's mask and said, "Nah!"

"Hinata-chan we better be getting back to Tazuna-san's place since we start the recon of that Gatou's hideout around twelve," the fox-boy said. The white-eyed girl replied, "Hai." The couple then gathered their things which included kunai, a small first aid kit, and their tool pouches and kunai holsters before making their way to Tazuna's place.

**Tazuna's House**

Everyone is eating breakfast at the moment, and Naruto and Hinata's disappearance hasn't gone unnoticed. As everyone finishes eating, there's a knock on the door. Asuma stands up and says, "I'll get it." The chain smoking Jounin walks over to the door and opens it, revealing Hinata and Naruto. Asuma quickly asks, "Well, where have you to been?" As the couple stepped inside, they noticed everyone was staring at them, except for Inari since he didn't think what the big deal was about some blonde idiot and his girlfriend spending a night out alone in the woods.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and the Hyuuga heiress start to twiddle her fingers, both with a blush on their faces. This caused everyone to go slightly wide-eyed and Ino to yell out, "Oh Kami, you guys didn't do _it_ did you?!"

The blonde and the midnight-blue blushed fiercely at Ino's question. The fox-boy then snapped back in his and his girlfriend's defense, "We didn't do anything like that! We just sort of fell asleep after sparring." The white-eyed girl than said, "Why would you guys even think we'd do something like that, we're too young!" Many eyes now fell on Kakashi and Naruto and Hinata leered at him.

Kakashi, "Why are you all looking at me?" Immediately a hailstorm of kunai, shuriken, and various silverware was flying at the silver-haired Jounin and shouts such as, "Hentai," "Baka," and "Teme" could be heard coming from the Genin apart from Shikamaru and Sasuke who fell asleep and started brooding respectively. Before anyone knew it, it was twelve and Asuma said, "Alright guys let's start on the recon, though it looks like Kakashi will have to rest another day before he can start guarding Tazuna-san again.

**Outside Gatou's Hideout Some Time Later**

"Well there it is, Hinata are you able to tell how many people are inside there?" asked Asuma as he lit up his third cigarette since they had left Tazuna's house. Hinata quickly activated her Byakugan and peered into the building, noticing many guards, most of which, appeared to be samurai as they all had katana of various sizes. After finishing her examination of what lay inside the building, the white eyed girl said, "It looks as if there are over a hundred samurai in there as well as some average thugs."

A sigh came from the squad's genius who said, "One hundred of them versus four of us… this is going to be really troublesome."

A certain fox-boy who finally got sick of hearing the word troublesome for the umpteenth time that day yelled harshly yet quietly at Shikamaru, "Stop with all the 'troublesome this' and 'troublesome that' bull! Hearing it every damn day is really freaking annoying you know that Shikamaru!"

A small smirk then crept onto the shadow user's face and he said, "Why don't you just say you find me to be troublesome, Naruto. It's kinda obvious you want to say it." This had the blonde fuming and Hinata giggling softly. Asuma then finished his cigarette and said to his team, "Let's get heading back you guys, we've done what we needed to do and I'm sure Shikamaru here will have at least a thousand different ideas for victory by morning. Squad 10 then started jumping from tree to tree away from Gatou's hideout and back to the village to prepare for their raid tomorrow, the whole time, Naruto was fuming over what the lazy genius had said.

**With Zabuza and Haku**

Zabuza had noticed that Haku had been acting strangely ever since she returned from gathering herbs that morning. He knew Haku was soft and hated to kill and only did so because she was forever loyal to him. However, when he asked her about what was wrong she mentioned something about meeting an interesting couple in the woods. Zabuza shook it off as something unimportant and went back to preparing for his attack on the bridge the next day where he would kill the bridge builder and that damned Kakashi.

**Tazuna's House the Next Morning**

It was around nine in the morning and Kakashi's group had already left for the bridge with Tazuna while Asuma's team was making final preparations for their assault on Gatou's hideout. Kakashi said he figured today would be the best day for Zabuza to attack since he figured due to the injuries he suffered from the various attacks by the Genin, it would take about a week for him to heal up. Today made it a week from when the group of shinobi had fought with Zabuza.

Asuma's team's mission was to raid Gatou's hideout and find him and kill him, but not before signing over all rights of shipping trade to the people of the Land of Waves. Once done there they were to report to the bridge and aid Kakashi's team if Zabuza decided to show himself. After checking over all their equipment, they left for Gatou's base. Naruto and Hinata had on their training outfits, since they provided the greatest deal of comfort for fighting, while Shikamaru and Asuma had on their normal attire.

After landing in some trees just outside the boarder of Gatou's hideout, Asuma had Hinata check inside the building. The Hyuuga heiress was surprised at what she saw, "There's no one in there! There are maybe three or four people on the basement level but otherwise there's not a person in there!" This shocked everyone especially Shikamaru since it threw all of his plans out the window. Asuma then said, "I assume he's gone to the bridge to ensure that Zabuza finishes the job and to ensure that Tazuna-san is dead. He's probably going to have all those henchmen kill Zabuza just so he won't have to pay him, if my guess on Gatou's personality is right." Hinata then continued with reporting her observations, "Either way, I think I can see what looks like several traps in there, but they look really stupid like the kinds you see only in movies."

Her blonde boyfriend asked, "You mean like 'bottomless' pits, walls that shoot arrows and release giant saws, and the like." Hinata nodded and immediately everyone sweat-dropped thinking, _"This man has no originality."_

Shikamaru then proposed an idea, "The easiest thing would be to just blow a hole in the roof above Gatou's office. Since we don't have guards to worry about it would prove least troublesome to do." They all nodded, especially since it would save them time in trying to avoid numerous stupid traps on the way in and on the way out.

A moment later the group was on the roof, right above what Hinata believed was Gatou's office. Through her Byakugan, this room was the only room even remotely office like. Without a second thought, Asuma set an explosive note on the roof and the group took cover when it went off. The explosion left a nice clean hole in the roof and the rubble that fell inward didn't appear to have damaged the office much.

Inside, the group quickly walked over to the desk and started looking through the draws. Naruto soon found a set of documents that entitled all rights of shipping to fall under Gatou's jurisdiction. Naruto placed the documents comfortably in his tools pouch and Squad 10 quickly left to go back up Squad 7 at the bridge.

**At the Bridge**

Zabuza had begun his attack, but he wasn't fighting at the moment. Right now, Ino was guarding Tazuna, and Kakashi and Zabuza were watching Sasuke and Kiba fight Haku, both being unsuccessful to land a hit on the girl. Haku had long since knocked out Akamaru who was now cuddled up in the dog-boy's shirt. As Kakashi watched his students get manhandled, all he could think was, _"Asuma, you and your squad better get here soon we really need some back up."_

Zabuza started laughing when he saw a hint of worry travel across Kakashi's face. He said mockingly, "What's the matter Kakashi? Afraid your students are going to die at Haku's hands? Or are you just waiting for some miracle where they'll be saved at the last moment?" Kakashi watched as Kiba was knocked back yet again by the masked girl. _"Hurry Asuma,"_ Kakashi thought.

**With Squad 10**

As Asuma's team is running from tree to tree in order to reach the bridge, a distinct scent reaches Naruto's nose he yells out, "He any of you guys smell blood?" His fellow Genin and his sensei all take a quick whiff and nod. They stop and look down on the ground and see several wild boars slain with deep sword marks in them. They then also notice that the trees have been sliced up some too. "Those marks are in the direction of Tazuna-san's place," The lazy genius points out.

Asuma, feeling worried says, "Naruto, you and Hinata quickly go and check up on Tsunami and Inari. I've got a bad feeling." Asuma then snuffs out his half finished cigarette and throws it to the ground. "Shikamaru and I will continue to the bridge. Get there as fast as you can." The couple nodded and the group split up.

A few minutes later, Naruto and Hinata arrive at Tazuna's house and see all is normal. The walk in and find Tsunami at the counter chopping vegetables. She smiles and says, "Why are you two back here? I thought you went to Gatou's hideout?" Before either the blonde or midnight-blue can answer, the door they just closed a moment ago is sliced apart.

Standing there with katana drawn are two samurai, one with pale skin, but not so much as Hinata, in a blue wool hat. Silver hair can be seen coming from the bottom of the hat down to the man's shoulders. Next to him is a large man with tanned skin and numerous scars on his chest and arms. Over his right eye, is an eye-patch.

Before they can do anything else, Naruto and Hinata charge at the men, Naruto taking the scarred guy and Hinata the silver haired one. In a flash, Hinata's knocked out the silver-haired guy by blocking his chakra points, and Naruto's left the scarred guy with plenty of bruises to add to his collection of physical disfigurements. Inari who saw this is amazed that someone defeated Gatou's men, since no one had been able to before. Naruto smiled at the boy and said, "Inari, stop crying and learn to stand up for what you believe in. And remember that the hero always shows up at the last minute." Naruto gave him a good guy pose before Hinata and him raced off for the bridge.

**Back at the Bridge**

Sasuke and Kiba are now both trapped inside of Haku's Makyō Hyō Shō **(Demonic Mirror ice Crystals).** Ino is still guarding Tazuna and because of the mist hasn't moved an inch. Kakashi and Asuma have been doing well against Zabuza. Asuma managed to cut Zabuza's left arm with his trench knives, but then got hit in the side of the head with the broadside of Zabuza's sword.

Kakashi and Zabuza are now in another stand off since Kakashi can't leave an opening for Zabuza to reach Tazuna.

A moment later, Naruto and Hinata silently arrive unnoticed. Hinata activates her Byakugan and can see Asuma knocked out and Zabuza and Kakashi standing off with each other. After a little looking around, she sees Kiba and Sasuke fairing poorly against the masked girl. Naruto then slowly sneaks over to where Hinata points out Zabuza is located, while she runs over to Asuma.

Coming up behind Zabuza silently, Naruto pulls out a kunai and charges the nukenin. Jumping over Zabuza, Naruto shoves the kunai deep into the top of his right shoulder. Zabuza starts to howl in pain, and he drops his sword to the ground. Kakashi is amazed at Naruto's action and slowly notices that the mist created by the Kirinin's Kirigakure no Jutsu is fading.

After a minute, the mist is nearly completely cleared. Haku stops her attack on Sasuke and Kiba and with her guard is lowered, Sasuke runs up and punches the girl across the face, knocking her to the ground. She looks up at the Uchiha and sees the Sharingan in his eyes, one tomoe in his left eye and two tomoe in his right. Haku immediately drops her Makyō Hyō Shō except for one and uses it to warp to Zabuza's side. Naruto and Hinata who are now at Kakashi's side with Asuma who is semi-conscious, say, "You!"

Suddenly, Haku's mask falls off, after the crack made by Sasuke's punch grows and makes it fall to pieces. Naruto and Hinata grow wide-eyed and yell out again in unison, "Haku?!" Haku opens her mouth to explain, but is interrupted by the sound of clapping. Everyone now looks at the end of the bridge were work was being done up until about an hour ago and see Gatou, along with over a hundred henchmen.

The short tycoon says, "Hey Zabuza, I thought I asked you, the Demon of Kirigakure, to kill that damn bridge builder. Though at the moment, you look about as demonic as sack of drowning kittens. I was planning on having these boys here kill you after you killed Tazuna, but it seems you failed at that."

Kakashi looks at Zabuza and says, "Looks like we aren't enemies anymore, eh Zabuza?" The nukenin looks at the masked Konoha Jounin and says, "Yea, it would seem for the moment we're allies."

**A/N: Ok I can't write anymore cause my stupid wrist just cramped up and I'm typing with my left hand so I'll leave you all in suspense there. :P Ok, next chapter Gatou's gonna die and Haku is going to grow closer to Naruto and Hinata. And I may have the Suna sibs. Make their entrance I don't know. Anyway prepare for some threesome fluff later on with NaruHinaHaku. I also want your vote on if you want there to be a lemon between them just say yes or no and leave a suggestion on when you want it. Chapter 9 will be ready tomorrow I hope. Oh and expect some Kyuubi talking again I've kinda ignored him intentionally since I only use him when I need Naruto to space out… You people must be sick of me ranting so laters.**


	10. New Allies and the Journey Home

**A/N: I realize that some of you out there don't approve of my choice for a NaruHinaHaku pairing instead of just leaving it NaruHina. If you don't like what I'm doing then you don't have to read this story. It is still mainly NaruHina but I'm adding Haku because a majority even if only slight would like to see it. I myself find it interesting so I'm going on ahead. If you don't like it as I said before don't read! And for those of you how think that Naruto would be disgusted at the thought and Hinata scared, here's a newsflash THEIR PERSONALITIES ARE DIFFERENT IN THIS STORY!! deep breathe Ok enough ranting, on with the end of the Wave arc. Oh and I promise to not knock Asuma out anymore, sorry for that.**

**Chapter 9: New Allies and the Journey Home**

Kakashi looks at Zabuza and says, "Looks like we aren't enemies anymore, eh Zabuza?" The nukenin looks at the masked Konoha Jounin and says, "Yea, it would seem for the moment we're allies." Zabuza then bites through the wrappings covering his mouth and face and looks at Naruto and says, "Hey boy, toss me a kunai." At the same time, Kakashi yells over to Sasuke and Kiba, "Kiba, Sasuke, get over here now!" The two Genin immediately run over to the new alliance of Squads 7 and 10 and Zabuza and Haku.

Asuma looks at Kakashi and asks, "Just what are you planning Kakashi? Even with all of us, we don't stand a chance against all of them." Kakashi looks at his fellow Jounin and says, "Don't worry Asuma, I bet your team alone could wipe out half of them easily, they're the main part of my plan. But we need Gatou alive." The silver-haired Jounin looks at Haku and asks, "Haku, do you think you could get Gatou if we distract all of these guys?"

Haku nods lightly, "It shouldn't prove to be a problem."

"Alright then," Kakashi starts off, "Naruto lets make the numbers a bit more even, Kiba and Sasuke can attack them as a distraction after Shikamaru binds them all down." Kakashi and Naruto then make a single hand seal and yell out in unison, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A large puff of smoke instantly created, and when it clears there are numerous Narutos and Kakashis.

This makes many of Gatou's henchmen go wide-eyed and start shaking in fear. Gatou himself is quiet shaken as well. The real Kakashi then says, "You're up Shikamaru." The shadow user walks up scratching his head and complains, "Alright, alright just quit giving us orders Kakashi-sensei, it's troublesome when I'm ordered around by anyone other but Asuma-sensei." He then thought, _"This is such a drag, we're fighting alongside two people who a minute ago were our enemies and now I'm going to have to hold down over a hundred people with my Kagemane… damn this is troublesome."_ After a few hand seals, Shikamaru, grumbles, "Kagemane no Jutsu." Instantly, the boy's shadow shoots outwards and latches onto the shadows of Gatou and his henchmen.

"Kiba, Sasuke, now keep them pinned down till Haku can grab Gatou," Kakashi said to his two students. Kiba pulled Akamaru out of his jacket and fed him a soldier pill. The little dog's fur suddenly started to spike up and turn red. "Ready Akamaru!?" Kiba asked his ninken partner. "Shikyaku no Jutsu!" Kiba's face soon grew more feral in appearance, and his nails seemed to grow into claws. "Now, Juujin no Bunshin!" Akamaru was now enveloped in a small cloud of smoke, which once cleared, showed that Akamaru had turned into a clone of Kiba.

Sasuke quickly reactivated his Sharingan seeing that his teammate was ready and ran towards the group of henchmen, while Kiba and Akamaru used the Gatsuga. Both deliberately avoided Gatou, which was now the only one under the control of Shikamaru's Kagemane. Without being noticed, Haku slipped into one of her ice mirrors and soon appeared behind Gatou and grabbed him. Before anyone could blink twice, Haku and Gatou were back over on the side of the bridge with the shinobi.

Gatou seeing himself surround and most likely about to be killed, pissed his pants. Naruto quickly grabbed the documents he had gotten earlier and walked over to Gatou and kneeled down so he was eye-level with the short man who was sitting down scared out of his mind. What Gatou saw, terrified the old tycoon. He didn't see a boy, he saw a demon. Naruto's face had become more feral, his canines were longer, his whisker marks darker, and his eyes were a crimson red with slits for pupils.

In a voice that was deeper and rougher than Naruto's normal voice because of his transformation, he said, "Listen here you bastard, sign over all the shipping rights of the Land of Waves to its people and maybe, _maybe_ we won't kill you." Gatou stuttered, "Sh-sure, whatever y-you people want. Just d-d-don't kill me!" Gatou quickly signed the documents, making the people of the Land of Waves the official owners of all shipping rights for the nation.

Zabuza looked at Kakashi with an evil look in his eyes and said, "Can I do it now?" Kakashi only sighed and nodded. Zabuza smirked evilly and looked down at the poor corrupt business dealer. He said to him, "This is for crossing me, Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of Kirigakure!" Zabuza put the kunai Naruto had given him earlier into his mouth and ducked down low. When he swung upwards, the kunai collided into Gatou's chest, piercing his heart. When Zabuza released the kunai, Gatou flew over the side of the bridge and down into the waters below.

By now, Sasuke and Kiba and come back, just in time to see Gatou fall to his death. Seeing someone die, left Hinata and Ino visibly shaken, mostly due to the gruesome way in which he was killed.

Suddenly, there was shouting coming from the henchmen who had worked for Gatou. Kiba and Sasuke had left a good number of them in fighting condition and they looked really pissed off. One of them stepped forward and said, "Hey! Who the hell's going to pay us now that Gatou's dead, huh?!" Another said, "Since he's not around anymore, will just have to raid that village!" The group of samurai and thugs started to charge towards the shinobi.

Most of them were nearly spent for chakra, except for Ino and Hinata who had not yet fought. Naruto and Kakashi's Tajuu Kage Bunshin had left them drained, as had Shikamaru's Kagemane, Akamaru and Kiba's Gatsuga, Sasuke's Sharingan, and Zabuza's Kirigakure no Jutsu. Even Haku was drained from overusing her Ice Mirrors.

Naruto looked at Asuma and said, "There's no way we can stop them now, there just aren't enough of us!" Suddenly, a bolt landed in front of the charging group of thugs, stopping them in their tracks. The shinobi looked behind them and there were all of the villagers, with Inari at the front of the group. The little boy smiled and said, "The hero always shows up at the last minute to save the day right?" The villagers started cheering wildly, bringing a small smile to Naruto's face.

The shinobi turned back to the thugs. Naruto made a quick seal, and said, "Well I still have a small bit of chakra left and I'm not letting that crybaby have all the fun! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Suddenly there were about ten or twelve Narutos.

"Haku lets help to," Zabuza said enthusiastically. The girl nodded and the two shouted along with Kakashi, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!" There were now about thirty Kakashis, thirty Zabuzas, and twenty Hakus. Asuma, Hinata, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino, and Sasuke joined in the clone party by adding with their Bunshin no Jutsu.

The thugs and samurai were now quaking in fear as the number of ninja they were facing went from ten, to at least a hundred fifty. In addition to the villagers, the former henchmen were scared shitless. They quickly ran for the small freighter that had docked next to bridge, many of them screaming and shouting.

As soon as the last thug was off the bridge, the villagers cheered in victory, as the shinobi dissolved their various bunshin. The shinobi didn't however. Kakashi and Zabuza looked at each other coldly, with bloodlust radiating off them. Everyone noticed this and Hinata spoke up, "Kakashi-sensei, why must you and Zabuza fight?! Why can't him and Haku-chan come with us back to Konoha?"

Hinata's question shocked everyone, especially Zabuza and Haku. Since their departure from Kirigakure years ago, the two had constantly been on the move, neither of them being wanted in a town for very long. The fact that this girl, a shinobi from Konohagakure no less, was offering to have the village shelter them, stunned Zabuza.

Kakashi stared at the white-eyed girl for a moment, then looked up at the two Kiri-nukenin and sighed, "Why would you suggest such a thing Hinata? They are ninja from-" He was cut off by Naruto who snapped, "Kakashi, they're nice people, I can tell even if you can't. Me and Hinata-chan know how nice Haku is because we met her yesterday in the forest!" Everyone but Haku and Hinata shouted, "You what?!"

As the blond, the midnight-blue, and the black were sent death glares, they slowly backed up to the railing of the bridge, side by side. Their reaction caused everyone to laugh, including Shikamaru and Zabuza, even though they only lightly chuckled. Naruto, Hinata, and Haku soon started laughing to.

For the next two weeks, while the bridge was finished being constructed, Naruto and Hinata argued with Kakashi to let Haku and Zabuza return with them to Konoha. Kakashi had happily agreed to let Haku come, but she said she would only come with Zabuza. It wasn't long before Kakashi agreed to let Zabuza come too. Before the bridge was completed, Kakashi sent one of his ninken to deliver a message to the Sandaime to inform him that Haku and Zabuza would be coming to Konoha.

**The Day After the Bridge's Completion**

The Konoha shinobi, Haku, and Zabuza, are all waving, or in Zabuza and Shikamaru's case, slightly smiling goodbye to the villagers of the Land of Waves as they prepare to cross to the other side of the bridge. As the group turns and leaves, Tsunami stands next to her father and asks, "You still haven't given the bridge a name yet father." Tazuna put his hand to his chin and says, "Why not name it after that boy? Yea, the Great Naruto Bridge." Tsunami giggles lightly at the name and says, "That's a pretty good name." Tazuna says back, "I'm sure that one day, the name 'Naruto' will be known all over the world."

**Several Hours Later**

The group has stopped in order to eat a quick lunch before continuing on. While they eat, Shikamaru and Asuma are playing a game of Shogi, Ino and Kiba are arguing, Kakashi and Zabuza are making death threats to one another, Sasuke is off on his own brooding, and Naruto, Hinata, and Haku are off by themselves in a tree above everyone else talking.

The three shinobi are surprised at how quickly they've become friends, mostly since they're from different villages. While the bridge was being built, Haku told both the blue-eyed boy and white-eyed girl about her past and how she came to meet Zabuza. During this time, Naruto also mentioned the Kyuubi being sealed inside of him, and Haku promised not to tell anyone, even Zabuza.

At the moment, the three are talking about how Naruto and Hinata became boyfriend and girlfriend and how Hinata used to be unbelievably shy. "Before I told Naruto-kun how I truly felt about him that day, I was always shy, and did nothing but stutter when I talked," the Hyuuga heiress told the ice mistress. "Thanks to Naruto-kun, I became a whole lot more confident in myself, so much so, that now I'm not even afraid to stand up to my father when he degrades me for being weaker than Neji-niisan."

"Why would your father degrade you just for losing to your cousin?" Haku asked the white-eyed girl. "I believe that as long as you try your best you should be praised." This brought a bit of light into Hinata's eyes which had grown dark from mentioning her father's treatment of her. "Well according to father, I'm supposed to be stronger than Neji since I'm from the Main Branch of the family and he is from the Side Branch," Hinata explained.

The blonde scratches his head a little and says, "You've told me this before Hinata-chan, but I still don't get the big deal between being in the Main Branch or Side Branch of your family." The midnight-blue haired girl then explained about the Hyuuga's history, and how those who were born into the "inferior" Side Branch were branded with a curse seal to keep them in line. Hinata also told about how she was once kidnapped by a ninja from Kumogakure but the kidnapper was killed by her father. She mentioned that this somehow led to the death of her cousin Neji's father. Hinata finished her story by saying that when she was five her mother died and ever since then, her father had been far crueler towards her.

When the Hyuuga heiress finished her story, Haku and Naruto had tears streaming down their faces. The two reached over to give Hinata a comforting hug, but since they were sitting on a branch this proved difficult and before they could actually hug the white-eyed girl the branch snapped and the three fell to the ground in a heap. They all land in a pile, all of them face down. Naruto was on the bottom, Haku in the middle, and Hinata on top. All three were dazed but uninjured. Everyone looked over the trio and started laughing, with the exception of Sasuke because he just continued brooding.

After the fox-boy, Hyuuga heiress, and ice mistress recovered their senses, the group continued on back to Konoha. All the while, Haku, Naruto, and Hinata walked hand in hand in said order from left to right. This was noticed only by Shikamaru, and the three Jounin, who were rather shocked to say the least. For the remainder of the trip, if one was inside Naruto's head, they would have heard the Kyuubi talking to himself. **"The Kit's got a woman on each arm now… this is going to be interesting."**

**A Few Days Later in Konohagakure**

As the group nears the main gates into Konohagakure, Zabuza and Haku are on edge since they are both considered nukenin and Zabuza is in Konoha's Bingo Book. Naruto puts a hand on the ice mistress's shoulder and says, "It'll be fine Haku-chan, Kakashi sent a message to the Sandaime days ago saying you and Zabuza were coming with us."

The black-haired girl looks at the blonde boy and says, "Thank you Naruto-kun, but are you sure he'll accept us into the village?" Naruto grins happily and replies, "If I know the old man, he'll accept you without a second thought." This quickly dispels Haku's worries, but it doesn't do the same for Zabuza.

As the group nears the check in station, the two shinobi standing guard, notice the group. One of them, who has a piece of cloth above his nose and cheeks, a dark marking on his chin, and wild raven-blue hair stands up and says, "Welcome back Kakashi-sensei, how was the mission-" The guard stops short when he notices Zabuza. He quickly draws a kunai and asks, "Kakashi what's the demon of Kirigakure doing here?!"

He is answered not by Kakashi, but by Sarutobi who has just appeared. The aging Hokage says, "Put down your weapon Kotetsu-kun, Zabuza-san is no threat. He will actually be joining the ranks of Jounin after his month long probation is done." Zabuza goes wide-eyed and looks at Kakashi and whispers to him, "You must have planned this from before we left the Land of Waves, eh Kakashi?" All he gets for an answer is a small chuckle from Kakashi.

"Zabuza-san," the Sandaime begins, "Until your probation ends a month from now, you will be a Special Jounin and participate in proctoring for the upcoming Chuunin exams. Afterwards, you will be promoted to Jounin."

Asuma now looks at his father and asks, "Is it already time for the Chuunin exams? I could've sworn we'd have more time to prepare." The chain smoker moves his cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other and continues, "We must have been away for longer than I thought."

Sarutobi takes a small puff of his pipe and says, "There will be meeting of all Jounin and Special Jounin tomorrow afternoon to discuss it. I hope to see you three there." The Professor's eyes now fall upon Haku and he says to her, "From what Kakashi has told me in the letter, you are highly skilled for someone our age and that you managed to completely overpower Sasuke-kun and Kiba-kun here." Both Genin flinch at the mention of their defeat to the ice mistress. Sarutobi continues to say, "I shall have you instated immediately as a Chuunin, and you don't have to worry about a probation period since you aren't in our Bingo book.

Haku's face immediately has a brightened glow to it as she bows respectfully and says, "Thank you, Hokage-sama for trusting me so." Before the Hokage leaves, he tells Kakashi and Asuma not to worry about any more missions for their teams till after the Chuunin exams and that their free till then. He also offers Zabuza a free apartment near one of the training grounds with a small pond, the now ex-nukenin gladly accepts. Sarutobi offered Haku an apartment in the same complex, but she declined saying that Hinata had offered for her to stay with her till she could afford a place of her own.

Once entering the village, everyone went their separate ways, except for Haku, Naruto, and Hinata, who went to go eat at Ichiraku's Ramen before parting ways.

**A/N: Chuunin exams are next YAY! I've been thinking about this for a while and I'd like your guys' personal opinion. Should I just end this story after the Sasuke retrieval arc and then make a sequel with the Shippunden chapters warped a bit, or should I just leave it as one story. Please respond and no more flames please, some of those last ones got me kind of ticked off. Well, see you in the next chapter!**


	11. AN 2

**A/N: Ok, so bad shit's happening here at home and I'm too out of it to write anything. I must truly thank all of you who have supported this story and helped it along. I don't know when I'll update again but I hope to soon. You guys will help decide some upcoming things in the story but I'll let you all know that I've already chosen who will fight who once the Third Round Prelims come around. I randomly drew names to get them set up and there are no matches that are the same. Some you guys might find interesting some you might not. As for some of the reviews I got regarding the rating of the story, there will eventually be lemons and it is also due to the Sound Four, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Sarutobi, and Orochimaru-teme. I promise you all to update as soon as possible. I also have a NaruAnko one-shot in the works that I would like to complete before the week is done so keep an eye out for it. I thank you again for your continued support of my fic.**

**-Frace**


	12. Ninja of Sunagakure and the Chuunin Exam

**A/N: I'm back at last! Though there were only a few I must thank everyone and anyone who wished me well last week. The past week has given me a bit of time to clear my head and I've spent the past few days deciding what's gonna happen now. So I'm telling you all now, prepare for NaruHinaHaku fluff, ShikaTema fluff, and maybe even GaarHaku fluff! A lemon will occur between Naruto and Hinata after the Chuunin Exams and Destruction of Konoha. Ok so here we go the tenth chapter's here!**

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**Chapter 10: The Ninja from Sunagakure and the Chuunin Exams**

Beep! Beep! Be-Smash!

"_I hate alarm clocks,"_ a certain blonde fox-boy said sleepily, turning his head to look at the alarm clock that was now pinned to the wall by a kunai.

"**And I hate you Kit, but now it's time to get out of bed and go meet your precious Hinata-chan and Haku-chan for morning training,"** Kyuubi said to his container. Naruto mumbled something under his breath about how wished there was a jutsu to make people shut up till he wanted them to speak again.

After a quick shower, and an even quicker breakfast of ramen, Naruto got out his new training outfit that he brought, at a ridiculously high price, the day before and threw it on. The outfit was of a midnight-blue that looked exactly like Hinata's hair, with fiery red-orange swirls in various places. The sleeves had bracers pinned securely into the forearm area, and shin guards in the lower leg area. The metal used for it was similar to what was used in forging kunai and shuriken, but it was slightly denser, which made it more protective but at the same time, heavier. After grabbing his tools pouch and kunai holster, both brand new as well, and filled with new shuriken, kunai, and various other tools, Naruto headed off to meet Hinata.

Upon arriving at the clearing where he and his girlfriend trained, Naruto was surprised for two reasons. First off, his girlfriend was here before him, which happened only on rare occasions since she often had to cook breakfast for the Main House before leaving. Second, there was someone else training with her. Naruto immediately recognized the long black locks of his newest friend, who had been an enemy only a couple of weeks ago.

As he watched the two practice, he observed the ice mistress counter the Hyuuga heiress's Jyuuken by using senbon, holding three in each hand, one between each finger. He was surprised, since even he hadn't discovered a way yet to counter Hinata's family's taijutsu style other than simply dodging. He walked up and shouted, "Oi, Hinata-chan, Haku-chan, what are you two up to?" The two kunoichi stopped abruptly and turned to the blonde, both with a smile on their faces.

The midnight-blue said, "I was just showing Haku-chan where we regularly train and my Jyuuken. She's even better at fighting against it than you, Naruto-kun." Haku blushed at the compliment and asked her fellow kunoichi, "Was I really all that great Hinata-chan? I was certain that Naruto-kun here would be far better against it than I am."

"I saw you Haku-chan, and I got to say that I'm really impressed. Hinata-chan rarely uses her Jyuuken when we spar since I can't counter it well and all I can really do is dodge," Naruto explained. Haku started to blush even more, still not being used to being praised for her skill. Naruto then said, "I really want to see that one technique you used against Sasuke-teme and the dog-boy back when you fought them on the bridge."

The ice mistress was rather surprised by the fox-boy's request, since the only time she used her Makyō Hyō Shō was when she was serious about a fight and intended to kill. A lazy voice then said from somewhere in the trees, "Same here, since I never really got a good look at it because of Zabuza's Kirigakure no Jutsu." The genius of Squad 10 then hoped down out of a tree with a smirk on his face. All three of them were surprised since Shikamaru never really moved to do anything and that it was only about six in the morning. He raised an eyebrow at the trio and asked, "What's wrong with you three, you look like you've seen a ghost or something?"

The blonde then said, "Well, it's just that…" the midnight-blue continued, "You never really move…" and the black-haired Chuunin finished, "To do anything, Shikamaru-san."

The lazy Nara sighed and thought, _"Great, they're around each other so much that they're starting to finish each other's sentences."_ With pure laziness in his voice he said, "I knew you three would be here and I just wanted a glimpse of Haku's best technique, though it was troublesome as hell to get up so damn early."

Naruto smirked slightly and then said, "I've got an idea. If Haku-chan is good enough to stop Hinata-chan's Jyuuken with just senbon, I want to see how good she is against all three of us."

Hinata then said back, "Naruto-kun, I think that would be unfair, three against one. How about something more fair, like, you and Shikamaru-san versus me and Haku-chan?" Naruto was about to answer his girlfriend when the ice mistress put in, "Hinata-chan, I think it would be a good test for me to face the best of the rookie Genin at the same time."

Naruto smiled at this and said, "Looks like it will be the three of us versus you Haku-chan, unless the lazy genius here has something to say."

Shikamaru sighed and simply said, "Sure, whatever." He then mumbled under his breath, "Troublesome blonde, troublesome women."

In what went quickly from a friendly sparring session between friends to a heated contest, Squad 10 eventually found themselves completely out-classed, even with Hinata's Byakugan and Naruto using Kyuubi's chakra for a boost. After half an hour, Naruto admitted defeat since they just couldn't catch Haku as she jumped from mirror to mirror while throwing senbon at them.

After everyone had plucked out all the senbon, in Naruto's case he looked like a porcupine before he did so, they all sat down and talked about the upcoming Chuunin Exam for about fifteen minutes. After resting enough, Shikamaru left to get back home before his "troublesome" mother got mad and hit him over the head with a rolling pin for going out so early without leaving a note.

The fox-boy, Hyuuga heiress, and ice mistress kept talking though, until well past seven thirty, when Naruto got up and said he was going home to clean up. Hinata and Haku waved the blonde off as he left, and then the kunoichi duo head off for the Hyuuga complex to get themselves ready. As they walked through the streets of Konoha, they saw that several shops and stands were open or just opening.

When the two were about five minutes from the Hyuuga complex, Haku said, "You truly do love Naruto-kun, don't you Hinata-chan?" the white-eyed girl was slightly surprised by her friend's question and blushed fiercely. Shyly, Hinata said, "Yes, I really love him, because… he's always been my inspiration, but he's also everything I'm not. He's outspoken, fearless, and handsome." Hinata's face was no so red it looked like it was ready to explode.

Haku giggled lightly and said, "You're more like him than you think, Hinata-chan. You may not be as brave or willing to speak your mind, but I think that your beauty is equal to his handsomeness." Hinata was blushing as furiously as ever, and stayed that way until the pair reached the Hyuuga complex. After both Hinata and Haku had cleaned themselves up, they went out to find Naruto and Shikamaru since they had planned to meet Asuma later that day.

**Hokage Tower Later that Morning**

"It's good for all of you to have come on such short notice," said Sarutobi to the large group of Chuunin, Jounin, and Special Jounin standing in front of him. Many however, didn't hear the Professor, as their attention was focused on the large man with bandages on his neck and mouth and with the large sword on his back. Finally, a man who was similar in height to Zabuza, Morino Ibiki, spoke up, "Hokage-sama, what the hell is Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of Kirigakure, doing here, and why is wearing a Konoha Jounin vest?"

The Sandaime took a puff on his pipe and calmly said, "Ibiki-san, Zabuza-san is the newest Special Jounin in Konoha and will become a full Jounin in one month's time after his probation period has ended." This news shocked everyone except for a certain bearded chain smoking Jounin and his fellow silver-haired, one-eyed Jounin. As many of those present began to talk amongst themselves, Sarutobi cleared his voice and said, "I've called you all here for three reasons, first, is to announce the return of one of my former students, and one of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade, to Konoha. Second, is to inform you all that another of my old students and another of the Sannin, Orochimaru, has been reported to be the leader of the newly formed Otogakure no Sato, and has set his eyes on invading and possibly destroying our village. This information reached my through Tsunade, who has promised me to remain here in Konoha until this matter is resolved. The third and final reason I summoned you here is to announce the start of the Chuunin Selection Exam. A week from today on the first of July, Genin from various villages will gather. I am sure that many of you Jounin here are planning on having your squads enter, but I need to receive recommendations from you first." The aging Hokage looks over the group before him and then continues.

"I would first like to begin with the three rookie squads from this year." The Sandaime nods to Kakashi who steps up and says, "I, Hatake Kakashi, lead Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, and Uchiha Sasuke in Squad 7. I recommend all three of these Genin for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

Next, Kurenai stepped up and said, "I, Yuhi Kurenai, lead Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Akamichi Chouji in Squad 8. I recommend all three of these Genin for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

Finally, Asuma stepped up taking a drag on his cigarette and said, "I, Sarutobi Asuma, lead Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Nara Shikamaru in Squad 10. I recommend all three of these Genin for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

Out of everyone present, no one was more shocked by this then Iruka. He was about to say something when Kakashi said, "Iruka, I know how you must feel about these kids, but they are our subordinates now and not your students. All three of us feel that they are ready for the trials to become Chuunin." Iruka was left speechless. Asuma then finished his cigarette and flicking it away he said, "Iruka, don't worry about it, they'll be fine. I'm almost certain anyway that out of the nine rookies at least one of them will become a Chuunin, and the one I got in mind may be lazier than a stump, but he'll become a Chuunin no sweat."

The Professor took another puff of his pipe and then said, "Very well then. Now, moving on…"

**Streets of Konoha**

Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata and Haku had all met up, and were walking to the spot where the Squad 10 members were to meet Asuma. As they turned a corner into one of the cleaner backstreets, they saw Ino, Kiba, a small boy with a runny nose, messy brown hair, and goggles on his head, and a small girl with a constant blush in her cheeks, orange hair done up in two braids, and with similar goggles. They were standing next to two people, one of them, a shinobi in a black, full-body suit with what looked like cat ears on top and a large, bandaged tool on his back. Next to him was a kunoichi with blonde hair done back in four pig-tails and a large fan on her back. The guy in the body suit had a kid with spiky, dark brown hair, a blue scarf around his neck, and goggles similar to the one the other small boy and girl had. They could clearly tell that something bad was happening and ran over to see what was going on.

"Put Konohamaru-chan down!" the little, orange-haired girl cried, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Just put the kid down, you cat-eared freak! It was nothing but an accident!" Ino yelled. The guy, who from Ino's point of view could be seen that he had a large amount of purple makeup on his face, smirked. The blonde behind him said, "Put the brat down Kankurou, we'll get in trouble!"

Kankurou snapped back, "Shut it Temari! It's shitty weaklings like these that just make me want to kill them; and I'm gonna start with this trash that bumped into me." Kankurou tightened his grip on Konhamaru's scarf, causing him to gasp for air. Temari spat inwardly then said, "I'm not involved in this."

The dog-boy then ran at him yelling, "Let him go bastard!" Kankurou's smirk widened and he flicked the ring finger on his free hand slightly. Instantly, Kiba fell head over heels, literally.

From where they were running, Naruto's group saw this and they all recognized it as the Puppet Technique. While running, Naruto picked up a rock and hurled it at Kankurou, hitting him on the hand and freeing Konohamaru. The puppet user looked at the fox-boy and spat, "More Leaf Genin trash?!"

Temari looked at Naruto then at Shikamaru and thought, _"Those two are kinda hot, especially the lazy looking one."_ Kankurou meanwhile, pulled the bandaged tool off his back and slammed it to the ground. Temari was knocked from her thoughts and looked at Kankurou wide-eyed saying, "You're not actually going to use the Karasu are you?!"

"Kankurou," a cold emotionless voice said from the tree next to where Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Haku were standing. "Stop acting like a fool, you're an embarrassment to our village." The voice belonged to a red-haired shinobi who was dressed in black and dark brown robes, with a white sash where his headband hung. He also had a large gourd on his back and a red kanji tattoo that read, "love." Kankurou was shaking in his sandals at the sight of the boy and mumbled, "He-Hey Gaara." The ninja then disappeared in a whirl of sand and reappeared in front of Naruto.

The boy turned and said, "I apologize of Kankurou's behavior, he can be a horrible baka at times." Naruto however wasn't paying attention, since he was focused on the dark circles under the redhead shinobi's eyes. He also noticed the faint smell of blood coming from his gourd. That's when he heard Kyuubi in the back of his mind say, **"This brat… Ichibi no Shukaku is sealed inside of him. Keep an eye on him Kit, that damn Tanuki never was right in the head."** The blonde nodded inwardly and refocused on the boy in front of him.

As he and the other two ninja turned to leave, Ino walked up and said, "Hey you three, you're from Sunagakure, what are you doing here in Konoha?"

The fox-boy looked at his fellow blonde, Konoha Genin and says, "They're here for the Chuunin Exam." He then turned to the three Sunanin and asked, "You with the gourd, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, what's your name?" The sand master turned and said, "Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara." With that, the three Suna siblings headed off to their apartment.

Naruto turned to the Hyuuga heiress, the ice mistress, and the shadow master and said, "I think we'd best go and meet Asuma-sensei now." The three nodded and they headed off to the Academy where they would meet the chain smoking Jounin, leaving a bewildered and confused Ino, Kiba, and Konohamaru Corps.

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**A/N: Alright still not up for writing super long chapters, but the Chuunin Exam has begun… well kind of. Anyway, I am now looking for Beta readers after this chapter. I just need a vote for whether you people want to see Hayate die at the end of the prelims. It may be early but whatever. As always review and I kindly ask for no flames. See you at the Chuunin Exams.**


	13. Preparations

**A/N: I apologize for a delay in updates, there were technical difficulties with uploading the last document. I plan on having this chapter focus on the week leading up to the Chuunin Exams and possibly the first exam itself. At the moment I'm plotting something devious that I won't say but it may please some of you who were mad at an earlier decision of mine or make you hate me more. Anyway here's the eleventh chapter and I hope you enjoy! Oh and I haven't said this in a while but, I don't own Naruto!**

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**Chapter 11: Preparations**

**Afternoon After Suna-Sibs Confrontation**

Squad 10 has just finished meeting with Asuma who gave Hinata, Naruto, and Shikamaru, each a form to fill out for the Chuunin Exams. Asuma had also mentioned what he had been told about Orochimaru's plot from Sarutobi, to the three Genin.

_Flashback_

"_Though we don't know for sure, in all likelihood, Orochimaru may appear during these Chuunin exams," the chain smoking Jounin told his squad. "Just keep an eye out for anyone suspicious who feels like he's a snake disguised as a person."_

"_Hai!" the three Genin replied._

"_Also," Asuma began, "We'll be having early morning training everyday up till the day before the Chuunin exams, and it's mandatory Shikamaru!"Asuma finished looking down at the shadow user who looked like he was about to complain._

_End Flashback_

The fact that there would be mandatory training in the morning with their sensei didn't bother Hinata and Naruto much since they trained everyday anyhow, but Shikamaru on the other hand, was thinking up numerous ways to get back at his sensei inside his ever contemplating head.

The blonde fox-boy turned to the white-eyed Hyuuga heiress and whispered into her ear, "Hey, Hinata-chan, let's ditch lazy-ass here and go out to dinner. We could have a picnic on top of the Hokage Monument if you like." The midnight-blue blushed and whispered back to her boyfriend, "I'd love that Naruto-kun; it'd be like another date!"

The last word caused Naruto to blush furiously since he hadn't thought of this as another date. The couple walked with their lazy teammate for another minute or so before quietly sneaking off, leaving Nara boy to walk wherever his feet took him.

As the couple ducked out of a back street, and back onto another main road, they saw two people, both of them they recognized. One had long, black hair down past her shoulders, while the other, was a redheaded boy with a large gourd on his back. They were walking side-by-side, but neither seemed to notice the other.

Haku had found this, Sabaku no Gaara to be very attractive, whether it was his dangerous and mysterious aura, his blood-red hair, or his jade eyes with pitch black circles underneath them, she felt drawn to him. After her friends went off to meet their sensei, she had just wandered around Konoha for an hour or so before she found the Suna boy. For the next couple of hours, she stuck to him like glue, but didn't dare talk to him. She walked next to him, but at arm's length.

Sabaku no Gaara was never talked or even associated with by anyone, pardon his siblings, but even they kept their distance since they feared for their lives. But this black-haired girl he had seen earlier that day was different. She had been following him for over two hours now and was now walking side-by-side with him but at arm's length. Since the moment she started to follow him, he wanted to kill her, but knew he couldn't since he was not at home. For now he would tolerate her presence, but only for now.

All Naruto and Hinata had on their minds seeing Haku and Gaara walking together was, _"What. The. Hell?!" _They both knew that this Sabaku no Gaara looked like he'd kill a plaza full of people without a second thought, but yet this silent Suna shinobi was tolerating the company of Konoha's newest Chuunin. That's when they both felt a presence behind them. The blonde and midnight blue turned to see Temari and Kankurou kneeling right behind them.

The two Konoha Genin jumped back and shouted in unison, "YOU…!" but before they could finish, Temari had her hand over Hinata's mouth, and Kankurou had his over Naruto's. The two Sunanin whispered, "Shhh!" The blonde kunoichi then said, "We've been tailing these two for an hour now and they've done nothing but walk! Gaara's probably at the limits of his already extremely thin patience and could go on a killing spree if we don't get that friend of yours away from him."

The fox-boy and Hyuuga heiress were rather shocked to hear this, and went wide-eyed since they couldn't talk. Naruto pulled Kankurou's hand away and asked, "He'd go crazy and kill people just because one person ticked him off a little?" The wind mistress and puppet master nodded.

Hinata, who finally got Temari to pull her hand away, says, "Naruto-kun we've gotta get Haku-chan now!" Naruto nods in agreement and the four shinobi peek around the corner and run as close as they can to the couple without being noticed. While doing this, they all see that Haku's only a few inches away from Gaara. After ducking into another side street, Hinata says, "I have a feeling that Haku-chan may be infatuated with Gaara-san."

If light moved a thousand times faster than what it did, it still wouldn't have beat Temari, Kankurou, and Naruto's mouths to the ground. All three then shouted, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Temari's eyebrow started to twitch as she thought, _"Someone… is in love… with Gaara… th-that can't be… can it?"_ Kankurou's thoughts were along the same lines, expect they were more … perverse, than what the situation called for. Naruto had just passed out thinking, _"Does Haku-chan fall in love with _every _guy she meets?"_

Hearing a scream had cause Haku to take her eyes off Gaara, and race towards the noise. The sand master took this opportunity to teleport as far away from this place as possible, without leaving Konohagakure.

When Haku turned into the side street, she found, a dazed and slightly drooling Temari, a mischievously grinning Kankurou, and a passed out Naruto being shaken by a worried Hinata. All she could ask was, "What the hell happened here?!" The blonde of Suna and the puppeteer snapped to attention while Hinata started slapping Naruto across the face to get him to wake up.

Since Hinata was busy shouting at and slapping Naruto, Temari explained everything that happened, how she and Kankurou found her and Gaara walking together, Hinata and Naruto's arrival; and ending with Hinata believing that Haku was in love with Gaara. The last bit made Haku blush enough to make any apple envious, not that the whole story didn't make her blush.

Hinata had finally woken Naruto up when the ice mistress quietly said, "Well, Temari-san I guess I do find Gaara-san to be… very attractive, even more than Naruto-kun." Naruto proceeded to faint again, with Kankurou doing the same, both dangerously foaming at the mouth. Temari's eyes just glazed over as she became as still as a statue and Hinata was panicking over everyone's reactions.

**1 Hour Later on The Hokage Monument**

Naruto and Hinata were finally able to recover from the slightly traumatizing event between Haku and Gaara, though the ex-Kirinin never did find the sand master when she went back out looking for him. However, the couple was unlucky enough to run into said redhead when they walked up on top of the Yondaime's head. He was in a meditative trance when they saw him, but without turning around or even opening his eyes, he said in a slightly annoyed voice, "Who are you and why are you here?" Venom and bloodlust seemed to drip on the edge of every word, almost as if the young Sunanin was restraining himself with all his might to not kill the fox-boy and Hyuuga heiress.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and this is my girlfriend Hyuuga Hinata. I believe we met earlier," the blonde explained. Gaara now rose to his feet and turned to the pair, with his cold, emotionless, jade eyes, which seemed to look into the depths of their souls on them, he said, "You still haven't explained why you are here." The cork on the top of the gourd was now shaking violently, almost as if something was inside, trying to escape. The white-eyed girl noticed this and clutched he blue-eyed boyfriend's arm tightly.

Naruto, realizing how Hinata was becoming more frightened by the second, turned to Gaara with a stern expression and said, "Could you ease down on the bloodlust, Gaara, you're scaring Hinata-chan. All we wanted to do was have a picnic up here."

"A picnic you say? Then I guess I'll be going," the redhead said quietly, almost as if he was saddened by something. Naruto noticed this, by a slight movement of his eyes, one he had seen in Hinata many times. He also noticed that the cork had stopped shaking and was resting quietly in place.

As Gaara prepared to leave, Naruto shouted, "Gaara, would you care to join me and Hinata-chan, we brought more than enough for several people." Naruto grinned and held up not one, but two baskets. The blonde's offer surprised Gaara, mostly since no one ever wanted anything to do with the sand master, apart from that Haku woman who was following him earlier.

Politely, yet still without emotion, Gaara said, "Thank you for the offer, Uzumaki Naruto, but I'm afraid I will have to decline." With that, the Sunanin vanished in a cloud of sand. The midnight-blue looked at the blonde and said softly, "He had a very lonely look in his eyes, don't you think Naruto-kun?"

The fox-boy nodded slightly and replied, "Yea, it almost reminded me of myself before I got to know you, Shikamaru, Asuma-sensei, and Iruka-sensei. Next time we meet, I'm going to ask him why he's like that."

"You're a very caring person, Naruto-kun, even towards those you just met like Temari-san, Kankurou-san, and Gaara-san." Without another word, the couple sat down and had their picnic on top of the Yondaime's head, all the while, talking about the Chuunin Exams and a certain ice mistress' infatuation with a certain sand master. Both of them however, never noticed the small eye that stayed floating around, watching them, or the boy with a large gourd who sat a ways off on the Shodai Hokage's head.

**Day Before the Start of the Chuunin Exams**

All week, Asuma had kept his Genin squad busy, training from dawn till well past noon, with only a short break for lunch at their choosing. During the training, Asuma helped each of his subordinates work on something they wanted to perfect for the Exams. With Hinata, he helped her work on her family's Jyuuken Taijutsu, often with him being her target. Though she never put chakra behind her attacks unless absolutely necessary, she was able to perfect two of her family's techniques, the Hakkeshō Kaiten **(Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin)** and the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō **(Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)**. The latter took most of the training period, but the former took a descent amount of time as well.

Shikamaru practiced the entire time on learning another of his family's jutsu, the Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu **(Shadow Neck Bind Technique)**. Asuma hated practicing this with Shikamaru since he couldn't smoke a cigarette once the Nara boy had trapped him, so more often than not, Asuma would make Naruto practice with Shikamaru, much to the blonde's distaste in being used for target practice.

When it came to Naruto, the fox-boy worked either on mastering control over Kyuubi's chakra, or the control and manipulation of his own chakra by tree climbing and water walking. The blue-eyed boy would practice on his Taijutsu with his white-eyed girlfriend when she wasn't practicing her Jyuuken techniques. Haku hadn't been able to join the trio and their sensei for the training exercises since she was off helping the other Chuunin and Jounin prepare for the Chuunin exams.

After finishing their final training session, Asuma let the trio off and wished them good luck on the Exams. The trio separated and went to their respective dwellings to clean up before meeting up with Haku later that night for a small party to wish them good luck. Much to Naruto's distaste when they arrived at the party at the Korean Barbeque restaurant, the Genin from Squads 7 and 8 were there. Naruto only had resentment for Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino, but barely tolerated Kiba's presence. The blonde didn't mind Shino or Chouji since the bug user was remotely quiet as always, and the pleasantly plump Akamichi was a good friend of Shikamaru's.

To everyone's surprise though, Iruka had decided to show up to wish his former students good luck and even offered to pay for the entire bill, which all of the Genin gladly accepted. Unfortunately, Iruka forgot just how much Chouji was capable of eating and ended up paying a bill fit for ten times as many people present.

As the squads separated, Naruto and Sasuke were glaring at each other and Sakura and Ino were doing the same, and Iruka was left weeping on a table due to the fact that he was now completely broke.

Before long, Squad 10 lost sight of the others and they walked on to Shikamaru's house since it was the closest. As Naruto and Hinata left Shikamaru's place, they looked up at one of the many towers that stood out in the village, and both could've sworn they saw a redheaded figure with a gourd sitting up there, outlined by the half full moon. But in the blink of an eye, the figure seemingly disappeared. As they walked on through the dark streets of Konoha, the Hyuuga heiress grabbed her blonde boyfriend's arm and held it tight.

The fox-boy smiled and thought, _"Hinata-chan's gotta be the best thing that's ever happened to me in this rat hole of a village. I only wish we could stay like this forever and not have to worry about that narrow-sighted Hiashi-teme."_ Then Naruto heard Kyuubi say from the back of his mind, **"If you want to be with her forever Kit, it'd be best to ask her to marry you, unless you wanna lose such a prize catch to some snobby feudal lord's son."**

"_I can't ask her to marry me kitsune-baka! We're only twelve, and too young to get married!" _**"It's your loss then dobe," **Kyuubi shot back as he cackled in the back of the blonde's head.

The white-eyed girl noticed how the blue-eyed boy she was holding suddenly started staring off into space, and she whispered, "Naruto-kun, are you alright?" The blonde was quickly brought back to reality and looked at the midnight-blue and grinned, happily saying, "I'm fine Hinata-chan, thanks for caring about me so much." Naruto said this with a slight blush in his cheeks. The Hyuuga heiress was now red as a beet and said almost inaudibly, "You're welcome Naruto-kun."

Moments later they were at the front gates of the Hyuuga complex. As Hinata said goodbye to the fox-boy, he embraced her in a firm, loving hug. The Hyuuga heiress returned it happily and she whispered in her boyfriend's ear, "I truly do love you Naruto-kun. Don't ever disappear on me." The blonde nodded and replied, "I'd never do that Hinata-chan. You're the entire world to me after all." Naruto's statement made Hinata feel the happiest she had ever been since before her mother's death all those years ago. Tears of joy started to flow freely from the girl's eyes as she hugged the blonde as tightly as possible, almost as if she feared he'd vanish right there in her arms. Without realizing it, the couple was quickly drawn into a firm, and passionate kiss.

After a moment or two when they finally needed to come up for air, the kitsune container said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Hina-chan; don't be late!" The white-eye girl, with tears still streaming from her pupil-less eyes, cried out as her boyfriend ran off, "I won't Naru-chan!" She then turned to enter the compound, all the while feeling as light as a feather.

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**A/N: Shorter than what I would've liked but I know you people enjoyed the ending fluffiness. I'm going to figure out some way to get Hayate to live if I can and enough people want him too. Your two favorite Sannin will make their appearance during the month break after the prelims. Jiraiya's part is set in stone but Tsunade's is shaky. If you people got any ideas go ahead and make requests, just nothing to extravagant. As always, R&R and no flames please. **

**P.S A/N: Chapters will be appearing at a slower rate once May comes around so don't panic if there are a few days between updates.**


	14. The First Exam: Yes or No

**A/N: Gomen, gomen, gomen! Schoolwork, work, and other crap in general has limited my writing time to almost none! So until June 22 or so updates will be slow. Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed my story up till now, since I finally got 200 reviews! cough Alright it's the First Exam and Squad 13, the Oto Genin, and Kabuto finally come into play. I just need votes if you guys want Naruto to get the Gogyo Fuin or not. Ok I don't own Naruto, but I wish I did!**

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**Chapter 12: The First Exam: Yes or No**

**Day of the Chuunin Exam, 2:30 Inside the Exam Hall**

Squad 10 is waiting inside the exam area along with many other Genin from several other hidden villages including Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure, Takigakure, and Otogakure. A majority of the ninja present though appear to be from Konoha. Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru are standing with the members of Kurenai's Squad 8, Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Akamichi Chouji, near the main door to the room. Shikamaru is talking with Chouji about the mission in the Land of Waves and how troublesome it all was; Sakura is sitting quietly against the wall, visibly saddened by something; it could be assumed Shino was conversing with his bugs, as he stood a still as a statue, with the only sign of him still being alive being the slight rise and fall of his chest and shoulders as he breathes; and Hinata and Naruto are quietly talking about what they'll do once they are both Chuunin.

At about fifteen minutes to three, A white-eyed boy, with brown hair that went just past his shoulders, a girl with her hair done up in two buns, giving her the appearance of a panda, and a bowl-cut haired kid in a full-body green spandex suit enter the room. Naruto recognizes the white-eyed boy as Hinata's cousin, Hyuuga Neji, the appropriately titled, Hyuuga Prodigy. On one occasion when Naruto had gone to the Hyuuga complex to pick up Hinata, he had seen her spar with Neji, only to watch his girlfriend be beaten decisively. Naruto knew the Hyuuga prodigy was skilled and would never dare go head-to-head, one-on-one with the boy if he could avoid it.

As soon as Neji's eyes fell on his cousin, he led his team over towards hers, stopping a meter or two from Squad 10 and respectfully said, "Hello, Hinata-sama, I didn't think that you would be participating in the Chuunin Exams so soon after becoming a Genin." The white-eyed boy took a quick glance over at the blonde boy, then at the shadow user, before saying, "Pardon my manners, these are my teammates, Rock Lee and Tenten," motioning to the bowl-cut haired kid and panda resembling girl respectively. With that, the three elder Genin walked off and disappeared into the crowd of shinobi.

The fox-boy then turned to the Hyuuga heiress and said, "I bet your cousin was only acting that way so he wouldn't make a scene. His teammates seemed nice enough, though the guy with fuzzy eyebrows creped me out." Both the white-eyed girl and lazy genius nodded in agreement. Hinata then said, "Neji-niisan has a horrible distaste for the Main Branch, but there are times when he can be nice. Though just now, I know his smile was fake." Shikamaru then silently motioned towards his two teammates, and they walked away from Squad 8, nearly unnoticed.

When they found a secluded spot, as secluded a spot could be in a room full of anxious Genin, Shikamaru hunched down and said to his teammates, "Last night I was able to find out about the first stage of this troublesome exam from my dad. He said it's a written test, so I figured out an easy way for all three of us to ace it." This news made the blonde boy and the blue-haired girl's eyes widen. Personally Naruto hated written tests, and he knew Shikamaru was the same, Hinata didn't mind them though. The genius Genin then continued, "Once the exam starts, I'll use the Kagemane no Jutsu to help you guys get the answers. I know it's cheating, but that's the easiest way I can see us getting through the first part of the exam without a sweat."

Naruto was just about to open his mouth and ask Shikamaru what he meant by "first part," when Squad 7 entered the room. Sasuke had his usual smug, pompous scowl on; Kiba had Akamaru on his head; and Ino was clinging to Sasuke's left arm lovingly, though the last of the Uchiha didn't seem to care.

Squads 8 and 10 walked over, and greeted their fellow rookies, the whole time Naruto was restraining himself to not punch that arrogant look off the raven-haired Uchiha's face. Sakura sent Ino a death glare, which practically ordered her to let go of Sasuke. Hinata decided to break the tension between the three squads by politely saying, "It's good to see everyone again; I'm happy that all of us rookies are together here in the Chuunin Exams." The other eight rookies nodded in agreement, though this did nothing to release the tension between Naruto and Sasuke, and Ino and Sakura.

From the crowd, the nine Konoha rookies were being watched by a few other squads, namely Gaara's, Neji's, and the sole Otogakure squad. They watched as Sakura and Ino continued to get louder and louder, arguing over Sasuke, when a grey-haired boy, with glasses, and in an all purple outfit walked up to them.

"You two should really learn to keep your voices down, you're quite noisy," said the grey-haired boy as he walked up to the nine rookies. They all turned and Kiba asked, "Who the hell are you?" The boy smirked slightly and adjusted his glasses, responding, "I'm Yakushi Kabuto, and I'd try not to draw so much attention, unless you want to end up dead." Kabuto then pointed towards a group of ninja across the room and said, "You see those guys over there? They're from Amegakure and they're really irritable, it'd be best if you didn't piss them off." The rookies all nodded slightly in agreement except for Sasuke who was too busy wondering how much of a challenge they would be.

Kabuto then continued, "Since you're all rookies I guess I can give you a couple of inside tips, since this will be my seventh time taking this exam." Sakura gasped slightly at this, and then she said, "So you're a veteran then." The grey-haired Genin chuckled lightly and responded, "I guess you can put it like that." Kabuto then reached into his tools pouch and pulled out a large deck of cards. Looking at them curiously, the fox-boy asks, "What are those?" Kabuto quickly answered, "Information cards."

Kabuto then drew the top card and showed the face to the nine rookies, only for them to see it blank. The grey-haired boy smiled and asked rhetorically, "You're probably wondering why the face is blank, ne?" He then proceeded to place the card face up on the floor and place his right index finger on it, and next forming a seal with his left hand and began to gather chakra. As the tip of Kabuto's right index finger started to glow blue, the card began to rotate until there was a small puff of smoke. Where there had been a blank image, there was now a miniature map of the world, with all the ninja villages that were participating in this Chuunin Exam clearly depicted.

What happened next surprised all nine of the rookies. Small green squares that had been next to each village's symbol and had the number of its participants for the Exam written in it, expanded into three dimensions, with those with more participants, such as Konoha expanding the most, while for Oto, there was barely any change since they only had three Genin taking the exam. Then, as quickly as the small map had appeared on the card, it disappeared and Kabuto picked the card up. The gray-haired Genin looked up and said, "I also have information on individual participants, including you guys, though for some entrants, my information is incomplete."

The blonde-haired boy then stepped up, and asked, "Do you have any information on Hyuuga Neji from Konohagakure and Sabaku no Gaara from Sunagakure?" Kabuto frowned and sarcastically responded, "Aww, you know their names and where they are from; that makes it no fun looking for their cards." Kabuto then swiped a hand over the deck and held two cards in that hand.

He placed one card on the floor and said, "First is Hyuuga Neji." The gray haired Genin then did as he had done with the previous card, forcing some chakra into it and releasing the hidden image. He picked up the card and showed it to Naruto. It had a small picture of his face in the top-left corner and a full picture of Neji that switched from a front view, to a back view, then to a side view, before repeating the order.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses and said, "Hyuuga Neji was at the top of the class that graduated the year before all of yours. He's got top marks in taijutsu and well above average marks in genjutsu and ninjutsu. His teammates are Rock Lee and Tenten and his sensei is Maito Gai. His squads completed eleven C-Rank missions and twenty D-rank."

Kabuto then resealed Neji's card and placed it back in the deck, before setting Gaara's card on the floor and releasing it. He picked it up and showed it to the fox-boy. As with Neji, it had a picture of the sunanin's face and full picture in the same areas. Kabuto said, "Sabaku no Gaara is, as you already know, a ninja of Sunagakure. I don't know much about how he fares in taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu, but he has completed an unknown number of D and C-Ranked missions and… hey look at this." All of the rookies leaned in for a closer look right before all of their eyes went wide and Kabuto continued, "He's even completed an A-Rank mission. But that's not all, it's also recorded that he returned from every mission without a single scratch."

Through each of the Genin's minds, pardon Sasuke's and Shino's, the same though passed through, _"This guy completed an A-Rank mission without a scratch… we're so dead!"_ After a minute or two, Naruto snapped back to reality and asked, "You wouldn't happen to have any info on the Genin from Otogakure, would you Kabuto?"

The gray-haired Genin sighed and said, "Otogakure is a relatively new village that just sprouted up recently that's rather small and weak, so I have little to no info on them. There's something I can tell you though, this year's competition is going to be intense, each village has sent its best Genin to participate and it's going to make this Exam highly competitive."

Across the room in the midst of the crowd, the three Otonin, two boys and a girl were listening in on what Kabuto was saying. One of the boys had his entire face bandaged up except for his left eye, and a grey long sleeve shirt, with sleeves that were far longer than his arms. The other boy, had wild, spiky, dark hair, and had a yellow shirt with the kanji for "kill" written three times on the front. The girl had long black hair that went just down to her waist, and wore a pale green ninja vest. All three had matching black and gray camouflage pants and scarves.

The bandaged boy said to his teammates, "'Small and weak' eh? Why don't we show that brat why he shouldn't underestimate ninja from Otogakure!" With that, the three Otonin rushed through the crowd without running into anyone, and in mere seconds, the bandaged boy was in front of Kabuto, and his two teammates were behind the gray haired Genin. Kabuto dodged a punch from the spiky haired boy and a kick from the girl, but then the bandaged kid pulled up his right sleeve to reveal some weird instrument attached to his arm. The boy tried to punch Kabuto, but the Konoha Genin dodged it easily.

Kabuto smirked, then, a second later, the lenses of his glasses shattered. Next, the gray haired boy heard an ear-piercing ring his ears, and dropped down to his hands and knees a vomited. The nine rookie Genin who had watched all this happen in just a few seconds were left awestruck. The thought running through all of their heads was, _"What happened? Kabuto dodged that guy's punch easy!"_ Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke quickly realized however, that there was more to the attack then what there seemed.

As the bandaged Otonin prepared to punch Kabuto again, who had just gotten to one knee, there was a large puff of smoke at the opposite end of the room, that once cleared, revealed several Konoha ninja, many appearing to be Chuunin, except for the one very large man in the center, who wore a large, black trench coat and had a bandana style Konoha headband. There were also a few visible scars lining his face. He shouted, "Stop right there you little bastard! Fighting outside the jurisdiction of the exam is highly prohibited! If you got a problem with that, you can take it up with me!"

The bandaged Otonin pulled his sleeve back down and began to walk off with his team, and without looking back, he said to Kabuto, "Next time you won't be so lucky."

That's when the large man spoke up again and shouted to all the Genin in the room, "Now if you worthless maggots are ready, follow me and we'll begin the first stage of the exam!" All the Genin did as they were told, and as they entered the room, they were each handed a small piece of paper with a number on it, and told to sit in the seat with the corresponding number. Soon, all the Genin had filed in and were seated. Naruto was overjoyed when he discovered he was sitting next to Hinata and even happier, that Shikamaru was in the row behind them, which made their plan foolproof.

Suddenly, the large man reappeared at the front of the room, and all the Chuunin from before were now sitting on either side of the room, each holding a clip board in their arm. The large man then spoke, "All right you Chuunin wannabes, I am your proctor for the first stage of the Chuunin Selection Exam; my name is Morino Ibiki. The first stage of this exam is a ten question written test."

The room was silent for about a second or two, before a loud, "WHAT?!" erupted from most of the Genin's mouths. Various arguments against Ibiki soon followed before the bear-like man roared, "Shut up! If you don't like it quit now and try again next year!" That quickly quieted anyone who had a second thought about questioning the Jounin's orders. Taking a deep breath, the head of the ANBU interrogation squad said, "While the Chuunin proctors on either side of the room hand out your tests, I'll go over a few simple rules with you maggots. First, this test is based upon ten points, if you are caught cheating, you will receive a two point reduction to your overall score. Second, if you are caught cheating five times you and your teammates will be disqualified. Finally, the tenth question will be given out after forty-five minutes have passed. You have a total of one hour." Ibiki's eyes then trailed up to the clock, and as the time turned to 3:05 he shouted, "Begin!"

Shikamaru immediately activated the Kagemane no Jutsu and placed the Hyuuga heiress and the fox-boy under the technique. After about fifteen minutes, Squad 10 had answered all but the tenth question. Shikamaru released Hinata and Naruto from his technique and leaned back to sleep through the test till the tenth question was revealed. The midnight-blue haired girl and the blonde-haired boy did the same.

Over the next half hour, team after team after team was eliminated. During this time, various techniques could be witnessed being used by the Genin. Neji used his Byakugan, Sasuke his Sharingan, Tenten used mirrors and wires to help her and Lee copy from another Genin. Gaara used his Daisan no Me **(Third Eye)**, Kankurou used his puppet Karasu to get the information and having the puppet give it to him when he had to use the restroom. Ino used her family's Shintenshin no Jutsu **(Mind Body Switch Technique)** to possess Sakura and look at her answers, while Kiba had Akamaru spy on other testers and relay the answers to him through yips and barks. Shino used his bugs to obtain the answers, then had one of them deliver the answers to Chouji through a small piece of paper.

During all of this secretive cheating, squad after squad after squad was caught and eliminated. In some cases, the disqualified applicants had to be dragged out and in others, even knocked out in order to get them to leave quietly. Finally, the first forty-five minutes had passed, and Ibiki spoke up, "All right you worthless maggots! I'll now give out the tenth question, but before I do that, there are a couple of rules I need to go over." A few groans were audible from the remaining Genin, complaining about the addition of more rules.

"First off," the bear-like man began, "you have two choices, to either accept or reject the tenth question. However, if you reject the tenth question you and your teammates will lose all their points and be disqualified. But, before you all go shouting your pretty little heads off, there's also a clause to if you choose to accept the tenth question." The blonde from Suna then asked, "And what would that be?"

Ibiki smirked and coldly stated, "If you choose to take the tenth question and get it wrong you will be barred from ever taking the Chuunin Selection Exam again and forever remain a Genin!" One Genin from Konoha stood up and yelled, "What the hell are you talking about?! The test wasn't like that last time!"

"I wasn't running this section of the exam last time," Ibiki spat back. "These are my rules and you will follow them or be disqualified!" This last statement caused some of the Genin to break into a sweat. "Now, any of you and all of you who don't wish to risk the tenth question raise your hands now!" Slowly, one after another, examinees raised their hands, and they and their teammates left. Ibiki smirked as he saw the number of remaining examinees dwindle at a rapid pace.

Naruto, sat firm in his seat, as did his teammates, the Otonin, the Sunanin, and Sasuke's squad. Shino was stoic as usual, but Chouji and Sakura were on edge. The fox-boy looked around and thought, _"We'll be here another hour waiting for everyone who's too scared to raise their hand, there's gotta be something I can do to speed this up."_** "Why not make some brave speech to throw a bit of backbone into the wimps?"** The Kyuubi suggested from within Naruto's mind. _"Guess I could, if it'll make this test end faster,"_ the blonde thought, or rather said to Kyuubi lazily.

Naruto then raised his hand and slammed on his desk and shouted, "Like hell I'd ever be scared of some stupid question! Whether I get it right or wrong, I'm still going to pass this damn exam and become a Chuunin with my entire squad!"

Ibiki smirked at Naruto's short speech and thought, _"This kid's interesting."_ He then surveyed the room and thought, _"Looks like that little speech put a bit of backbone into all the would-be quitters, guess I'll end this then." _"Since it seems no one else is going to jump ship, I have two words for you all." Ibiki's smirk now broke into a full-fledged smile and he said, "You pass."

The room grew quiet for about two seconds then a loud, "WHAT?!?!" exploded from the remaining Genin. Ino stood up and asked, "What about the tenth question?!" Ibiki just kept smiling and responded, "That was the tenth question, or at least you decision to take it was." Temari now stood up and shouted, "There was no purpose at all in the other nine questions then!"

Ibiki's smile now returned to its former, cold expression and he said, "That's where you're wrong. This test had two main purposes, starting with the nine questions. It was designed to test your skill at gathering information without being detected; those who were unable to do that were eliminated. In a real mission, you would most likely have but one chance to get the information you need. If your caught spying…" Ibiki stopped talking and undid his bandana and took it off, revealing a head covered in burn marks, puncture wounds, and various other scars. "This is what can happen, unimaginably painful torture.

"As for the tenth question, it was to test you on if you were willing to risk everything. That is something a Chuunin squad leader faces in everyday of their lives. You could have chosen the safe route and tried at another time to become a Chuunin, or you could risk it all on a question you had no idea on what it could be. On missions where you are sent to steal valuable information, you may often find yourself facing an unknown amount of enemies, and you will not know if the enemy anticipates your arrival or not. But in not being caught and choosing to face a possibly dangerous unknown, you all have taken your first steps towards becoming fully fledged Chuunin. I congratulate each and every one of you on making it through the first stage of the Chuunin Selection Exams."

Everyone jumped up from their seats pardon Shikamaru who had fallen asleep during Ibiki's speech. The celebration was cut short, when something burst through the window. In a puff of smoke, a purple-haired woman in a full-body fishnet uniform, a pale yellow trench coat, and a orange miniskirt appeared, with a large flag with the name "Mitarashi Anko" written on it. She yelled out, "Hey you brats, I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'll be the proctor for the second stage of your Chuunin Exam!"

**A/N: It's finally done! A whole damn month of writing bits and pieces has finally paid off! Ok, I predict that I'll be posting now and again until my last final sometime in mid June, but after that there will be nothing to stop from writing all I want! I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please wish me luck on my AP European History Exam on Friday, thank you. As always R&R and stay tuned for the next chapter, it's probably going to be a bit bloody.**


	15. AN 3

**A/N: I deeply apologize for the great delay in updating the fic, I suppose between school finally ending, work, and having another fic, I kind of pushed this one to the side… I'm now actually not even sure if I'll be writing anymore for it. sigh Well hopefully after my two week vacation in Maryland, during which I will have no computer access, I hope that I'll find the will to keep writing this, if not, I again, deeply apologize. Please don't hate me for this and stay patient.**

**-Frace**


	16. AN 4

**A/N: for those of you who haven't read the summary, I'm discontinuing this story, I apologize, but this is my final decision.**

**-Frace**


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